The Wall Street Journal-20080204-Investing in Funds- A Monthly Analysis- Mutual-Fund Yardsticks- How Fund Categories Stack Up
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080204
Investing in Funds: A Monthly Analysis; Mutual-Fund Yardsticks: How Fund Categories Stack Up
Full Text (510 words)All returns are for periods ended January 31. Fund-category abbreviations
used in performance tables appear in parentheses after category name.
---------- PERFORMANCE (%) ------------
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE JANUARY 1-YR 5-YR* 10-YR*
Diversified stock & stock/bond funds
Large-Cap Core (LC) -6.5 -2.7 10.8 4.3
Large-Cap Growth (LG) -9.0 1.5 10.1 3.9
Large-Cap Value (LV) -4.9 -4.0 12.5 5.7
Midcap Core (MC) -6.3 -3.6 14.7 8.8
Midcap Growth (MG) -9.3 2.3 14.5 6.8
Midcap Value (MV) -5.0 -5.8 16.0 9.5
Small-Cap Core (SC) -6.8 -9.4 14.5 7.6
Small-Cap Growth (SG) -10.0 -4.4 13.6 6.4
Small-Cap Value (SV) -4.7 -11.6 14.6 8.4
Multicap Core (XC) -6.5 -2.4 12.3 6.2
Multicap Growth (XG) -9.2 1.7 13.5 5.4
Multicap Value (XV) -4.7 -6.3 13.2 7.0
Equity Income (EI) -4.5 -1.9 12.7 6.2
S&P 500 Funds (SP) -6.1 -2.9 11.4 4.7
Specialty Divers. Equity (SQ) -1.6 10.6 5.9 0.2
Balanced (BL) -3.5 1.1 9.2 5.1
Stock/Bond Blend (MP) -3.9 0.9 9.7 5.6
Avg. U.S. Stock Fund*** -7.0 -3.0 12.9 6.0
Sector stock funds
Science & Technology (TK) -12.7 -1.5 13.6 5.3
Telecommunication -10.9 -3.3 17.1 5.2
Health/Biotechnology (HB) -5.3 0.1 11.1 8.3
Utility (UT) -7.2 10.2 20.0 8.5
Natural Resources (NR) -9.8 26.3 28.6 15.8
Sector (SE) -2.1 -15.4 14.7 8.7
Real Estate -1.3 -21.3 18.1 10.4
World stock funds
Global (GL) -7.5 1.2 16.0 6.8
International (IL) -8.7 1.8 19.6 7.6
European Region (EU) -10.0 -1.1 21.9 9.9
Emerging Markets (EM) -10.7 22.0 32.8 13.7
Latin American (LT) -5.4 35.0 47.9 18.2
Pacific Region (PR) -11.0 9.5 22.0 10.7
Gold Oriented (AU) 7.6 33.6 26.7 17.2
Taxable-bond funds
Short-Term (SB) 1.0 4.8 3.1 4.4
Long-Term (AB) 1.1 5.7 4.8 5.2
Intermediate Bond (IB) 1.5 6.4 4.1 5.2
Intermediate U.S. (IG) 3.2 12.1 4.6 5.4
Short-Term U.S. (SU) 1.5 7.1 3.0 4.4
Long-Term U.S. (LU) 2.2 9.5 3.9 5.2
General U.S. Taxable (GT) 0.4 3.0 5.4 4.6
High-Yield Taxable (HC) -2.0 -1.5 8.5 3.7
Mortgage (MT) 1.4 6.8 3.7 4.9
World Bond (WB) 2.1 9.9 8.2 6.9
Avg. Taxable-Bond Fund** 0.8 5.1 4.8 4.7
Muncipal-bond funds
Short-Term Muni (SM) 1.3 4.5 2.6 3.4
Intermediate Muni (IM) 1.6 4.9 3.3 4.0
General Muni (GM) 1.1 2.5 3.8 4.1
Single-State Muni (SS) 1.1 3.1 3.6 4.1
High-Yield Muni (HM) 0.8 -2.2 4.9 4.0
Insured Muni (NM) 0.5 2.5 3.5 4.1
Stock and Bond Benchmark Indexes
All total return unless noted
Large-cap stocks
DJIA -4.5 2.6 12.0 N.A.
S&P 500 -6.0 -2.3 12.0 5.1
Midcap stocks
S&P MidCap 400 -6.2 -2.2 15.4 10.7
Small-cap stocks
Russell 2000 -6.1 -9.8 15.3 6.5
Broad stock market
DJ Wilshire 5000 -6.1 -2.7 13.2 N.A.
Russell 3000 -6.1 -3.1 12.8 5.5
Stock indexes
DJ Wilshire Growth Index -7.8 -0.6 12.1 N.A.
DJ Wilshire Value Index -4.1 -4.3 14.1 N.A.
Taxable bond
Lehman Bros. Agg. Bond 1.7 8.8 4.8 6.0
Muncipal bond
Lehman Bros. Muni. Bond 1.3 4.9 4.6 5.2
International stocks
MSCI EAFE (price return)**** -9.3 -2.1 17.5 5.1
Dow Jones World (ex. U.S.) -9.2 3.2 22.2 N.A.
*Annualized
**Excludes money-market funds
***Diversified funds only **Excludes money-market funds
****Europe, Australia, Far East
Source: Lipper