In the spirit of the light trading days of summer we’ll keep today’s missive short and sweet. This should make it easier for those of you who follow us every week not to miss a beat while reading from your smart phone or tablet, poolside or at the beach, wherever this may reach you. The market, of course, hit fresh new highs yesterday on the back of mostly benign economic readings; although these days it’s hard to tell what investors prefer since good economic news, which could portend an acceleration of the Fed’s deceleration (follow me?) is now bad news. This morning’s unemployment release seems to herald more of the same as U.S. employers reportedly added a lower-than-expected 162,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate, based on a separate household survey, fell to 7.4%. We could spend a couple of paragraphs on the labor participation rate and part-time employment figures, where the real news are, in our opinion, but then again, we promised to keep it short, so here it goes.
Performance Update
The Barron’s 400 Index reached an all-time high of 461.70 yesterday and is now up 26.2% year to date. The index has gained 37.2% in the last 52 weeks and has bested the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index by 3.4% per year, on average, in each of the last three years. The table below summarizes B400’s up to date returns vs. the benchmarks.
| Index | 52-Weeks | Year to Date | 3-Yr. Annualized |
| Barron’s 400 | 37.2 | 26.2 | 19.7 |
| DJ U.S. TSM | 27.2 | 20.6 | 16.3 |
| Dow Industrials | 21.3 | 19.3 | 14.3 |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26.3 | 21.7 | 17.7 |
| S&P 500 | 25.0 | 19.7 | 15.7 |
| S&P 400 MidCap | 35.8 | 23.3 | 18.3 |
Interview with Carlos Diez on ETF Database
B400 was featured this week in an interview published on ETF Database and Yahoo Finance with Carlos Diez, President of MarketGrader. Stoyan Bojinov, the author, did a very nice job, in our view, explaining how B400 is constructed and maintained by MarketGrader. You may read the complete interview below.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/barron-400-index-does-110019706.html
B400 on Wikipedia!
The long overdue Barron’s 400 Wikipedia page was finally released this week. We expect this to garner additional interest in our index as its momentum continues to build. You may view the new page below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barron’s_400_Index
Updated B400 Pages on MarketGrader Web Site
We have updated the Barron’s 400 pages on the MarketGrader web site with a fresh design layout that matches the Barron’s style more closely than the rest of our web site. This continues to be, of course, the best source of B400 updates on the web, with more updates on the way. You may view the newly redesigned pages below.
https://www.marketgrader.com/indexes/overview/Barrons_400
The latest B400 Diary entries by John Prestbo:
B400 Earnings Are Under Pressure as Slow Economic Growth Continues
U.S. economic growth remains subpar, and Barron’s 400 companies are feeling it.
Twitter Updates
For more news surrounding the Barron’s 400 Index, follow us on Twitter:
@Barrons400
