Aside From Commodities, Major Asset Classes Slump
2022.05.02 15:03
Red ink spilled across nearly every slice of the major asset classes in April. Commodities were the exception, posting a solid gain. Otherwise, losses prevailed, based on a set of ETF proxies.
Notably, it’s the same story for year-to-date results in the wake of last month’s losses. Everything except commodities is down so far in 2022, with double-digit slides representing half of the declines.
The upside outlier: iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG), which rallied 4.5% last month and is ahead more than 38% in 2022. For globally diversified portfolios, commodities are the main (and in some cases the only) source of ballast for an increasingly bearish year. A distant second-place source of stability: cash (SHV), which was flat in April and off fractionally for the year to date.
Last month’s steepest loss: US stocks VTI, which fell 9.1% in April and are in the hole by 14% year to date.
GMI Table Total Returns
The Global Market Index (GMI) resumed its decline in April. This unmanaged benchmark (maintained by CapitalSpectator.com), which holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights, fell a hefty 7.7% last month and is off 14% so far for the year.
Reviewing GMI’s performance relative to US stocks and bonds over the past year continues to reflect a middling performance for this multi-asset-class benchmark (blue line in chart below). US stocks (VTI) shed 3.5% for the trailing one-year window. A broad measure of US bonds — Vanguard Total US Bond Market (BND) – lost even more, falling 8.7%. GMI declined 7.0% for the year through April’s close.
GMI vs US Stock & Bond Markets
