Facts: Indexes have no costs, but funds do. Most funds underperform their benchmark (BM) at a minimum by ther expense ratio and some additional amount related to turnover.

Numerous headlines during the past year caused many investors to fear catastrophes that never materialized. For example, a showdown looms in congress over raising the federal debt limit; nonetheless a plunge off the fiscal cliff has been averted for now. And though Europe hardly solved its problems, the euro zone did not break up. As for China’s economy and stock maket , they did not crash.  And as for politics, Obama’s re-election did not sink the stock market.

In regards to stocks, it was a rocky month. The S&P 500 plummeted 4% in the week following the President’s reelection before rebounding on economic optimism. The S&P 500 finished November 0.58% higher even though there has been little progress on talks to prevent spending cuts and tax increases. Some analysts doubt the dire predictions on the tax increase. Year -to-date (Nov 30) total returns on the S&P 500 are a welcome 14.96%.

Lasting 18 months, the recession of 2007-2009 was the longest and deepest U.S. contraction in the post-World War II era.  Though recovery started in the summer of 2009, it is widely considered to be the weakest in the postwar period in terms of both output and employment growth.

Hurricane Sandy forced Wall Street to close on October 29, the anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash. It was the exchanges' first weather related closing in 27 years. The hurricane and its after effects led to a two day shutdown. Yet despite the destruction wrought by the storm, when US Stock markets re-opened, a relatively normal day unfolded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite index both fell less than 1%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 ended on the final trading day of the month, fractionally higher.

The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are preparing to open for business as usual on Wednesday following an extraordinary storm that crippled many parts of Manhattan and prompted widespread power failures.

Due to Hurricane Sandy, the NYSE was closed Monday, October 29, 2012. The NYSE and other US stock and bond markets will remain closed Tuesday, October 30.

Investments into commodity-linked products have grown in recent years due to investors embracing alternative investments as a way to deal with inflation uncertainty in their portfolios.

Wall Street wrapped up a strong third quarter on a weak note. Stocks finished September with a second consecutive week of losses.  Prices were pulled lower by disappointing US manufacturing data and rising concerns over the euro zone's economy and sovereign-debt issues. Despite ending the quarter on a down note,  the S&P 500 index nonetheless returned 2.58% in September and 6.35% over the last three months. This brought year-to-date returns on the US benchmark to 16.44%, which is a lot to be grateful for.  While all major US asset classes delivered strong quarterly performance, large caps outperformed small, and value bested growth.

Trading volume was at its lowest in five-years but U.S. stocks still managed to finish the month with solid results. The S&P 500 ended August with a gain of 1.98%, a two-month run of 3.26% and a rise of 11.85% year-to-date. The summer rally confounded bears who predicted the stock market would repeat last year’s slump of 7.7% during July and August. The S&P Small Cap 600 index, which trailed the performance of the S&P 500 index in July, reversed its standing in August posting a 3.66% gain.