All five ABC Funds improved significantly in April following a rather positive month of March. Interestingly, North American equity prices are finally showing some stability as investors are slowly regaining confidence that the worst may be over for the economy and common stocks. Considering the extraordinarily tumultuous October 2008 to February 2009 period, the current market recovery is providing considerable relief and a budding confidence to enervated investors.

As difficult as the past seven or eight months have been, we have remained vigilant as we have tried to upgrade our ABC portfolios with extremely undervalued common stock selections. Our present outlook is cautious yet relatively optimistic. We expect the North American economies to gradually emit signs of an economic comeback. This should become more visible during the second half of 2009 after the massive global monetary and fiscal stimulation finally kicks in. At the same time we anticipate continued stock price volatility, albeit, with an upward bias. 

Accordingly, as we retain our positive investment perspective we intend to take advantage of market swings with our adequate cash reserves via opportunistic trading, new equity financings and selective undervalued security purchases.

Irwin A. Michael, CFA