Major Asset Classes: July 2022 Performance Review

Summary

• The majority of the major asset classes rebounded in July, providing relief from an extended run of red ink, based on a set of proxy ETFs.
• The challenges that triggered widespread selling in global markets this year remain in force – the war in Ukraine, high inflation, rising interest rates and stumbling economic activity.
• This toxic mix will continue to create headwinds for markets, but for one month, at least, gloomy sentiment took a holiday.

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The majority of the major asset classes rebounded in July, providing relief from an extended run of red ink, based on a set of proxy ETFs. The challenges that triggered widespread selling in global markets this year remain in force – the war in Ukraine, high inflation, rising interest rates and stumbling economic activity. This toxic mix will continue to create headwinds for markets, but for one month, at least, gloomy sentiment took a holiday.

US stocks (VTI) led the revival, jumping 9.3% last month – the first monthly gain since March. Despite a strong monthly bounce, American shares remain deep in the red year to date: VTI is in the hole by 14% in 2022.

Although most markets around the world rose last month, there was no relief for stocks in emerging markets (VWO), which edged down 0.8% in July. Commodities (GSG) and emerging markets government bonds (EMLC) also lost ground.

The Global Market Index (GMI) joined the relief rally in July. This unmanaged benchmark (maintained by CapitalSpectator.com), which holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights, rose 6.6% last month, although this portfolio-strategy benchmark is still off by nearly 14% so far in 2022.

Comparing GMI’s performance to US stocks and bonds over the past year illustrates the strength of revival in July in relative terms. The strong rebounds look encouraging, but it’s not yet clear if the downside trendlines have run out of road.

Original Post

Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.

Comments

[fujilomi]

Thanks for the data. July was a great month, finishing on 2 up weeks in a row, the first time since 2021, and 3 out of 4 positive. My base case is still a hawkish FED induced hard/crash landing with a traditional recession already in place. But hopefully FOMO fever can override that, back to the 200 day MAV would be terrific sometime this month.