MONDAY 8/29/16; NIKK Rallies +2.3%; Personal Income and Outlays; US 2-10 Yield Spread 75 Bips

Asian indexes are mixed in the early going. The NIKK explodes +2.1% higher but Korea and Australia trade lower. KOSPI -0.4%. ASX 200 -0.3%. BOJ Governor Kuroda’s dovish comments from Jackson Hole on the weekend weakens the yen and pumps Japanese stocks higher. The Topix is up over +2%.

[Text is Redacted: Purchase August 2016-08 to Read the Complete Chronology]

Interestingly, 77% of the large funds are lagging the broad indexes this year. Common Ma and Pa investors may not be as anxious to hand their money over to financial managers that are underperforming the broad stock market. There is an ongoing trend where investors are choosing a passive investment path by simply buying ETF’s in their brokerage accounts that track the major indexes. The passive strategy outperforms four of every five hot-shot active money managers this year and the funds charge fees for their underperformance.