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U.S. Stocks Continue to Sour in February as Global Stocks Rebound
Russell Global Index reflects a gain of 0.5% for the month
March 3, 2008 — A tough final trading day in February dragged the broad-market Russell 3000® Index (-3.1%) into negative territory for the month. The index now reflects a year-to-date loss of 9.5% through the end of February.
While 2,648 of the stocks in the Russell 3000 were hit with a loss on Friday, 51% of them continue to show a year-to-date gain. Investors can track the number of declining and advancing stocks at this link: www.russell.com/Indexes/performance/real_time_market_analysis.asp.
"Investors are finding some ports in this year's economic storm," said Chris Tessin, portfolio manager, who pointed to the Russell Midcap® Index as one example. "Midcaps didn't exactly rock in February, but the Russell Midcap did outperform for the month while growth stocks generally outperformed value stocks."
In a complete reversal from January, growth stocks at every capitalization tier in the U.S. market outperformed their value counterparts, except in the microcap segment. While the Russell 1000® Growth Index, for example, reflected a loss of 2%, the Russell 1000® Value (-4.2%) decline even more so.
U.S. equity returns for February also showed that the Russell Midcap® Growth Index (-1.5%) outperformed all others, while the Russell Top 50® Index (-4.7%) suffered the largest loss for the month among all U.S. market segments measured by Russell Indexes.
Looking globally, the Russell Global Index gained 0.5% for the month of February, powered in part by stocks in the Russell Asia Pacific Index, which gained 3.2% for the month. The Russell Emerging Markets Index also showed signs of strength in February, reflecting a gain of 7% for the month and outpacing the Russell Developed Index (-0.3%) by more than 700 basis points.
In the large-cap Russell 1000® Index, 28 of the 50 top-performing stocks for February are integrated oils and other energy firms. Ranking first and second, though, are two firms in the consumer discretionary sector: ChoicePoint (45.4%) and Yahoo (44.8%).
Similarly in the small-cap Russell 2000® Index, 70% of the 96 other energy stocks increased in value for the month, including Sulphco (38.5%), Rex Energy (35.5%) and Parallel Petroleum (33.1%). The top performing stock though is Encysive Pharmaceuticals (198.7%) in the health care sector.
| Sector returns for the month of February |
| |
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Russell 1000 |
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Russell 2000 |
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Russell 3000 |
| Technology |
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-3.6% |
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-5.7% |
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-3.8% |
| Health Care |
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-1.9% |
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-5.2% |
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-2.2% |
| Consumer Discretionary & Services |
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-4.3% |
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-4.2% |
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-4.3% |
| Consumer Staples |
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-0.1% |
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-0.8% |
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-0.1% |
| Integrated Oils |
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3.3% |
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14.7% |
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3.3% |
| Other Energy |
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12.6% |
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9.3% |
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12.3% |
| Materials & Processing |
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2.3% |
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1.2% |
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2.1% |
| Producer Durables |
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-0.8% |
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-1.4% |
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-0.9% |
| Autos & Transportation |
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-4.7% |
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-4.4% |
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-4.7% |
| Financial Services |
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-10.3% |
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-7.5% |
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-10.1% |
| Utilities |
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-6.1% |
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-8.0% |
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-6.2% |
For additional performance figures on Russell's indexes and the user-friendly Russell index returns calculator, please visit: www.russell.com/Indexes.
About Russell: Russell Investments provides strategic advice, world-class implementation, state-of-the-art performance benchmarks and a range of institutional-quality investment products. Russell has more than $228 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2007, and serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries. Russell's industry-leading indexes have $4.4 trillion in assets benchmarked to them. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Contacts:
Steve Claiborne, 253-439-1858
Russell Investments is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to its indexes.
Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly.
RC#5354
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Russell Investment Group is a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide, including Russell Investments, and is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
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