PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Investors were a fickle bunch in May, buying stocks one week, only to sell them the next. The market rallied on positive economic news mid-month but stalled at the end as global political risks and domestic terrorism threats intensified. May ended on a down note with the S&P 500-stock index losing 1%. The mutual funds in BusinessWeek's Mutual Fund Scoreboard fared a bit worse than the broader market, and the average diversified equity fund was down 2% on average.
One significant development in mutual-fund results this month: There was very little difference in returns between value- and growth-fund strategies. For example, small-cap value was down 3% in the month, and small-cap growth was down 4%. Most of the year, value and growth categories have diverged sharply. Year-to-date, small-cap value is up 11%, and small-cap growth is down 14%. In May, the same narrow range of returns was evident among large-cap funds (value was flat, growth down 2%) and mid-cap funds (value down 1%, growth down 3%).
GOOD AS GOLD. Most U.S. stock funds turned in middling results -- dipping slightly into the red or eking out a small gain. Very few U.S. diversified stock funds showed up in the top 100 funds this month. A few that did are large-cap US Global Investors All American Equity (GBTFX
), which was up 7%, small-cap Perkins Opportunity (POFDX), up 6%, and Oberweis Micro Cap (OBMCX
), up 4%.
The only stand-out category was precious metals -- up an average of 20% in May as the price of gold spiked. The two top-performing funds for the month were both from U.S. Global. World Precious Minerals (UNWPX
) was up 41%, and Gold Shares (USERX
) was up 33% in the month. Year-to-date, those funds are up 133% and 122%, respectively, while the precious-metals category is up 76%.
Technology and health-care sector funds brought up the rear in terms of domestic-fund returns in May. Tech funds were down a modest 6% but have lost a punishing 24% year-to-date. Black Oak Emerging Technology (BOGSX
) was down 16%, and Van Wagoner Post Venture (VWPVX
) was down 14% in May. The broad health-care fund category was down 4% in May. Riskier offerings, like Amerindo Health & Biotech (DNADX
), down 17%, fared worse.
LIMPING BONDS. Funds that invest overseas were a bit more volatile than U.S. offerings. Japan funds gained 6% in May as that country's economy showed some strength. Latin American funds were the worst-performing category overall, down 6% in May. But Latin American funds are still up 1% year to date.
On the fixed-income side, most bond funds limped to a small gain of less than a percent or so for the month. The duration of the funds didn't seem to matter much. Long funds returned 0.8% and Ultrashort funds returned 0.2% on average. The only losing bond-fund categories, as could be expected in a down market, were those with the highest-risk: convertible, emerging-markets, and high-yield bond funds. International bond funds, up 1.6% on average, had some of the highest returns, with T. Rowe Price International Bond (RPIBX
) up 3.8%.
New A-List Equity Funds in May
Fidelity Select Brokerage & Investment
Gabelli Investor ABC
Janus Balanced
Leuthold Core Investment
Merger
MFS Value A
Mutual Beacon Z
Mutual Discovery Z
Van Kampen Comstock A
Vanguard Wellesley Income
Vontobel US Value
1st Source Monogram Income Equity
FBR Financial Services A
Janus Adviser Balanced
Janus Adviser Core Equity
Janus Aspen Core Equity Instl
Julius Baer International Equity
Security Capital US Real Estate
Security Mid Cap Value A
Equity Funds Downgraded from A-List in May
CornerCap Small Cap Value
CRM SmCap Value Inv
Dreyfus Gr & Val Fds Midcap Value
Enterprise Small Co Value A
Fremont US Micro Cap
Hartford Capital Appreciation A
Liberty Acorn USA Z
LKCM Small Cap Equity
MS Special Value B
One Group Mid Cap Growth I
Pioneer Small Cap Value B
Quaker Small Cap Value
Reserve Private Eqty Small Cap Growth R
Schroder Capital US Small Companies Inv
T Rowe Price Small Cap Stock
Turner Mid Cap Growth
Wasatch Ultra Growth
Wells Fargo Small Cap Opportunities I
WM West Coast Equity A
By Amey Stone in New York Edited by Patricia O'Connell
Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.
Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.
Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.
To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.
Copyright 2002 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
