Market Matters: May 31, 2023
Risk assets generally declined in May, with real assets posting the lowest returns across broad categories.
Equities
Decades of Data: Emerging Markets 1987–2022
The 2022 Emerging Markets edition of our annual report on the history of financial markets provides context for the range of returns investors can expect from equities, bonds, and cash; reveals the importance of various components of equity returns; examines the evidence for equity mean reversion; and reviews the relationship between initial valuations and subsequent returns for equities and bonds.
Should Investors Continue to Overweight US Small Caps Despite Recent Banking Sector Stress and Growing Recession Fears?
Yes, investors should overweight US small-cap stocks, given valuations remain attractive and will provide a cushion if an expected recession unfolds.
The Business Cycle’s Impact on Asset Performance
Asset performance is highly sensitive to the global business cycle. In this chart book, we highlight the significant shifts in performance distributions across the global business cycle for major asset classes, including equity regions, styles, sectors as well as for fixed income, real asset and currencies. Ultimately, understanding the distributions of asset performance across business cycle stages and considering where the global economy is headed are key inputs in a rigorous investment decision-making framework.
US Manager Universe Statistics: First Quarter 2023
This publication presents manager performance for 37 asset classes and substrategies, showing the median, mean, and key percentiles of return. Relevant indexes for each asset class are also included to provide market context.
Decades of Data: Europe ex UK 1900–2022
The 2022 Europe ex UK edition of our annual report on the history of financial markets provides context for the range of returns investors can expect from equities, bonds, and cash; reveals the importance of various components of equity returns; examines the evidence for equity mean reversion; and reviews the relationship between initial valuations and subsequent returns for equities and bonds.
Hedge Fund Update: First Quarter 2023
The year started with a strong risk-on rally as declines in inflation prints in the United States and Europe fueled the narrative for “soft landing”—suggesting the economy could avoid a crash, while inflation continued to soften. However, the buoyant sentiments abruptly gave way to great uncertainty when Silicon Valley Bank’s stock plummeted in early March.
Market Matters: April 30, 2023
Risk assets generally advanced in April.
VantagePoint: Banking Crisis Implications for Asset Allocation
We entered 2023 with a view that a recession in some economies, namely the United States and much of Europe, was likely this year, and the recent banking sector stresses reinforce our confidence in this view. Investors should be disciplined in maintaining policy targets broadly, remembering the role allocations to stocks, bonds, and cash play in portfolios.
Buying India’s Growth Story, But Not Today
India has arguably the most compelling long-term growth opportunity in the global economy today. But should investors buy the hype surrounding Indian equities? We think India’s bright economic prospects have the potential to drive strong equity market returns in the long run; however, we do not think Indian equities offer a compelling overweight over a shorter-term, tactical horizon. Investors interested in India’s growth story from a strategic perspective should build allocations through high-quality public and private managers, preferably toward active managers on the public equity side.