The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, October 3, 2008

Article Excerpt

Despite a stream of nerve-rattling financial news, starting with the failure of the first U.S. bailout package, the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 managed to hold above Monday’s lows this week until just before Friday’s close. It’s a mistake to read too much into this, of course. But it is encouraging to see these two indexes move sideways in this depressing news environment. The plunge to new lows by the Canadian market reflects the heavy resources content in our economy and stock market. The Resources sector stands to suffer in an economic setback, and that’s already begun to happen with the drop in oil, copper and other metals. In addition to the decline in our market, our dollar lost nearly four cents this past week, relative to the U.S. dollar. We continue to recommend that you spread your investments our across the five main economic sectors, and devote around a quarter of your portfolio to U.S. stocks. Market turnarounds often occur…