Global financial market volatility surged in April as investors priced in the potential impacts of so-called reciprocal tariffs revealed by the United States, which significantly raised import levies on virtually all trading partners.
Global equities declined, driven by a large sell-off in US stocks as investors digested the potential negative impact from new US import tariffs.
Global equities advanced in Q4 as performance diverged among regions.
Global equities and fixed income declined in October as rising bond yields weighed on performance across a broad swath of asset classes.
Global equities advanced in Q3. Monetary easing by several major central banks and a weaker economic outlook led to a rotation favoring value over growth strategies.
Fixed income outperformed equities, driven by declining yields as markets became more convinced that major central banks would continue to ease monetary policies.
Global equities advanced, with performance led by tech-heavy markets, including the United States and emerging Asia.
Over the past two weeks, central banks in the United States, United Kingdom, euro area, and Japan have all held monetary policy meetings. The communications following these meetings retained a hawkish bias, suggesting further policy tightening may be necessary—except for the Bank of Japan—however, additional interest rate hikes will likely be much less frequent for the remainder of this cycle. Despite this reality, we do not think major central banks will be quick to cut interest rates next year.
On a median basis, active managers declined but held up better than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. This chart book is our annual summary of the absolute and relative performance of managers that report to our database.
The vast majority of active managers underperformed the index in 2021—the worst year for active global equities managers we have on record. This chart book is our annual summary of the absolute and relative performance of managers that report to our database.