Markets

As an investor, there are two parts to the returns you'll
see: changes in price, and dividends received. Of the two,
price changes get the most attention, blaring away in real
time on TV, radio, and financial web sites, whenever the
market is open.

The recent bear market has left many casualties, including
just about every individual investor with money in the stock
market. But the average Jane and Joe aren't the only ones who
have been beaten down -- the big fund shops are also
suffering from a lack of investor confidence.

I’ve been startled recently by many
news stories about the massive declines in endowments at
elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and
Princeton. Sure, many investors lost money over the past
year, but the performance at Harvard and Yale "badly trailed"
the results at the average college, as
The
Wall Street Journalso delicately put it. I'm
shocked, but not because of these endowments' lackluster
performance.

Actions speak louder than words, as the old saying goes.
So why does the media focus so much attention on what Wall
Street says about companies, instead of what it
doeswith them?

After seeing shares of its spinoff
Mead Johnson Nutrition (NYSE: MJN) nearly
double since its

IPO in February,
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) has decided
now's the time to sell the 83% of the baby formula producer
that it still owns.

Full disclosure, fellow investors: I'm as perplexed by the
health insurance reform "conversation" as the next sentient
citizen. Year in and year out, the cost of health care
out-inflates all comers, and yet the beat goes on. And on and
on and on ...

Both gold and its mining namesake began this week by
strutting their stuff.

OK, let's be straight here. I obviously don't know whether
you personally are beating or lagging the market. But with a
great many professional money managers

failing to keep upwith the market, it's not much of a
leap to assume that plenty of individual investors have found
themselves eating Mr. Market's dust, particularly during

the crazy rallyover the past eight months.

Many members of the media have pored over
Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and
Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) latest quarterly reports,
eager to glean glimmers of hope for the housing market. Alas,
if there are any such signs in these retailers' numbers, they
look pretty darn dim.

"'Don't catch a falling knife' ... The idea of buying a
former superstar stock at a discount price certainly has
its attractions, but you've got to make sure you catch the
haft -- not the blade."