Morningstar Indexes: Weekly Market Report

Escalating hostilities in the Mideast raised concerns over energy supplies, pushing oil prices to record highs again last week. This, coupled with slower than expected growth in retail sales, drove the Morningstar US Market Index down for the fifth week in a row. Last week's 2.5% loss wiped away virtually all of this year's gains, resulting in a slight 0.16% return for the year as of July 14.

None of the style indexes were spared in last week's pullback as losses ranged from 1.2% to 4.6%. However, the Morningstar US Value and Large Cap Indexes weathered the storm better than the rest, while the Morningstar Small Growth Index continued to plummet, dropping 13.8% over the trailing 3-months and a whopping 4.6% last week. The best performer among the nine Morningstar style indexes was once again the Morningstar Large Value Index--down 1.2% for the week. Oil stocks Exxon Mobil and Chevron gave the index a boost with a gain of 3.28% and 4.24%, respectively. Conversely, banking stocks pulled the index down with, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley all shedding 3% or more.

A 22% exposure to hardware and software sectors, contributed to the Morningstar Small Growth Index's dismal performance. Wireless equipment manufacturer InterDigital Communications dropped 21% and semiconductor manufacturer SiRF Technologies lost 15% for the second week in row