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May 2021 Asset Class Returns

Jun 2, 2021

Commentary
May was a month where equity markets seemed to struggle a bit for direction, as inflation numbers from the US and some other countries began to show that the economic recovery post-Covid may bring inflation to go along with economic growth.

The 1.4% gain in the overall MSCI World was driven by Europe (up 2.4%), as well as the more “old school” sectors of the US market, as evidenced by the outperformance of the Dow Jones (1.9%) for the month) versus the 1.5% decline of the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

At the sector level, the notable outperformance was delivered by the Energy and Materials, gaining 5.8% and 5.0%, respectively. Financials were close behind with 4.79%.

Bond returns for the month were stable for the most part, with the best performance coming from the local-currency Emerging Market, which was up 2.01% on the back of a recovery in the value of many local currencies against the USD this month. Bond yields at the Treasury level were a bit lower over the month, helping the overall market post some modest gains after a challenging start to the year when yields were rising quickly.

There were gains across the board for commodities, with the sole exception of platinum which dropped 3.1%. Gold and silver saw 6.8% and 5.4% gains, respectively, possibly beginning to price in some inflation risk. The gains registered by commodities, and the signs seen in supply chains around the world, are the primary catalysts for both the strong performance of the more cyclical equity sectors (see above) and the broader rotation that seems to be gaining traction in equity markets.
Metals and soft commodities continued the strong surge witnessed of late, with more gains registered in May. Iron ore led the way with another 8% rise in May.

World Equity Indices

Name Index 1 month 3 month
S&P 500 INDEX 4204.11 0.6% 10.3%
DOW JONES INDUS. AVG 34529.45 1.9% 11.6%
NASDAQ COMPOSITE 13748.74 -1.5% 4.2%
NIKKEI 225 29064.82 0.9% 0.3%
Euro Stoxx 50 Pr 4070.56 2.4% 11.9%
FTSE 100 INDEX 7022.61 0.8% 8.3%
SWISS MARKET INDEX 11426.15 3.7% 8.6%
MSCI AC ASIA x JAPAN 884.41 -0.01% -0.3%
MSCI WORLD 2979.3 1.4% 9.3%

 

S&P500 Sectors

Name   1 month 3 month
S&P 500 INFO TECH Information Technology -0.9% 4.3%
S&P 500 HEALTH CARE Health Care 1.9% 5.9%
S&P 500 CONS DISCRE Consumer Discretionary -3.8% 3.0%
S&P 500 COMM SVC Communications -0.1% 7.8%
S&P 500 FINANCIALS Financials 4.8% 11.7%
S&P 500 INDUSTRIALS Industrial 3.1% 6.8%
S&P 500 CONS STAPLE Consumer Staples 1.8% 4.0%
S&P 500 UTILITIES Utilities -2.3% 1.8%
S&P 500 REAL ESTATE Real Estate 1.2% 9.6%
S&P 500 REAL ESTATE Materials 5.2% 10.8%
S&P 500 REAL ESTATE Energy 5.8% 6.4%

 

World Bond Price Returns

Name 1 month 3 month
Global Aggregate 0.94% 0.30%
Global High Yield 0.94% 1.80%
US Corp High Yield 0.30% 1.54%
EM Local Curr Govt 2.01% 2.02%
EM USD Agg 0.92% 0.98%
Treasuries 0.95% -0.09%
Treasury 20+ Year 0.52% -2.39%

 

Currencies

    1 month 3 month
Euro 1.2228 1.36% 1.49%
Japanese Yen 109.45 -0.35% -2.46%
British Pound 1.4229 2.29% 2.18%
Swiss Franc 0.8988 1.35% 1.82%
Australian Dollar 0.7742 -0.27% -0.39%
New Zealand Dollar 0.7276 1.04% 0.15%
Canadian Dollar 1.2052 1.88% 4.93%

 

Commodities

  spot 1 month 3 month
Gold Spot   $/Oz 1914.97 6.8% 11.1%
Silver Spot  $/Oz 28.3441 5.4% 6.7%
Platinum Spot  $/Oz 1194.66 -3.1% 0.5%
       
Iron Ore Spot Price 247.94 8.1% 15.6%
LME COPPER   SPOT ($) 10248.25 3.7% 12.1%
LME ALUMINUM SPOT ($) 2458.51 2.7% 14.4%
US Crude Oil WTI Cushing  66.32 3.9% 7.8%
US Gulf Coast Jet Fuel  175.58 2.4% 4.9%
       
NNS Vegetable Onion Nasik price 950 15.2% -40.6%
Coffee 191.94 16.2% 19.5%
COTTON N FUTR  Dec21 83.56 -1.8% -3.7%
USDA Boxed Pork Belly 182.36 17.8% 17.4%
MAIZE      Jun21 269.25 11.6% 22.4%

 

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