Economic comments, week ending Jan. 6
Recently, talking heads have spent way too much time discussing about whether or not the Dow will pierce 20,000 and what that means for the future of the stock market. First, for some background, the Dow Jones Industrial Index is made up of 30 stocks, weighted by the price of a single share of each stock. Through times, shares have split (i.e. one share worth $100 becomes 2 shares worth $50 each), companies have been acquired, and the make up of the Index has changed. In order to facilitate the calculation, a divisor is utilized so that the impact of the above mentioned events appear to have no impact on the Index. The current divisor is 0.14602128057775 so a $1 change in the share price of a single stock has an impact of $6.87 on the index. We have been fixated on benchmarks with zeros on the end. Each achievement of 1,000 or 10,000 points on the Dow stirs up the media. There is really no significant difference between 19,999 and 20,001 and the fact that the Dow might cross than milestone has no significance in future values of the index. Technical analysts will look at measures of momentum, moving averages, and stochastics to analyze the markets. Fundamental analysts will look at the overall economy, earnings, P/E ratios, and dividends to value equities. Neither should be depending on a statistic measure like 20,000 on the Dow even as the Index closed this week 36 points from that demarcation.
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John W. Davidson, CFA, started writing these Comments more than a decade ago as a personal discipline when he was promoted from portfolio manager to chief investment officer and CEO.
Most recently, he was the president of PartnerRe Asset Management Corporation, responsible for the management of PartnerRe's invested assets, which grew from $4 billion to $12 billion during his tenure. After joining PartnerRe in the fall of 2001, he hired the staff, built the trading floor and created the infrastructure to manage both fixed income and equity assets internally. He retired from PartnerRe at the end of 2008 and moved to Maine, where he focused on board work.
He has more than 35 years of industry experience, including positions with investment management responsibility for separate institutional accounts, mutual funds, trusts and insurance assets. Prior to joining PartnerRe, he served as president and chief executive officer of two other investment management companies. For various companies he has held positions as chief investment officer, chief economist, head of fixed income and portfolio manager. As a portfolio manager, Davidson managed and traded U.S. Government Securities as well as futures and options on fixed income instruments.
His real world experience is backed by a strong academic foundation, which includes earning a Master of Business Administration in finance and a Master of Arts in mathematics from Boston College, as well as a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in economics from Amherst College. He holds the professional designation of chartered financial analyst.
His experiences and credentials have brought him to the public as a television commentator and conference speaker. In addition to his frequent past appearances on CNBC, CNNfn, Bloomberg TV and Yahoo FinanceVision, he appeared as a special guest on Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser. Reuters, Bloomberg and other business press services have quoted his views on the market. He has taught CFA preparation programs, as well as other courses offered by the Stamford and Boston CFA Societies, and the National Graduate Trust Officers' School.
Davidson is a natural leader in both his professional and personal life, having developed those skills early in his career as a naval officer. He spent three years on active duty, which included a year on the rivers of Vietnam, and 24 years in the Naval Reserve, from which he retired as a captain in 1994.
Davidson is treasurer and board member of the Camden Conference. He is also on the investment committee of the Pen Bay Health Foundation. He serves as an independent trustee for mutual funds.
In his leisure time, he is an active sailor, tennis player and skier. With his wife, Barbara, he renovated a 100+-year-old home in Camden, where they enjoy spending time with their two golden retrievers and having visits from their five children. He can be reached at jwdbond@me.com.
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