A message from the Investment Management Team of Strategic Advisers LLC
By Brian Enyeart, CFA®,* President, Strategic Advisers LLC
Stocks around the world rose strongly in the first quarter, led by the U.S. Overall, most accounts held modestly more U.S. stocks compared to their long-term asset allocation mix, which helped returns. Overseas, while economic growth slowed, developed and emerging market stocks rebounded. Meanwhile, bonds had a strong quarter with high yield bonds outpacing investment grade bonds.
Given the current market backdrop of low unemployment, rising wages, and a positive corporate earnings outlook, we rebalanced client accounts during the quarter. In most accounts, we sold stocks, which grew in value for much of the quarter, and bought bonds. This kind of activity can help keep client investments consistent with their goals.
U.S. stocks rose 14%2 during the quarter, led by traditional growth areas of the market such as technology, which was the top performing sector. Many funds in your portfolio own slightly more growth and technology stocks than the market, which helped performance.
Stocks with more of a quality orientation also performed well. Compared to the broader market, quality stocks typically have:
Historically, quality stocks have held up well in late cycle. Client accounts benefited from our positioning as we tilted toward quality stocks over the last year.
As for performance detractors, value stocks continued to lag growth. As a result, those investments slightly hurt performance. Furthermore, your investments had less exposure to defensive and income-oriented parts of the market. This hindered performance since these stocks had solid gains during the quarter.
Developed and emerging market stock returns also rebounded during the quarter. Similar to the U.S., areas of the market that were hurt late in 2018 performed best. In particular, China, technology, and growth-oriented investments, which are positioned to benefit from improvements in global growth, all did well. Within international stocks, we continued to favor quality and growth, which helped returns. During the quarter, we rebalanced by selling international stock funds when they performed well and buying bond funds instead.
U.S. Treasuries performed positively during the quarter, particularly in March. That’s when interest rates fell, as the Fed signaled a pause in future rate hikes, given slowing growth and low inflation. Outside of treasuries, as investors regained confidence in corporate earnings growth, worries about bond defaults receded. This helped investment grade bonds gain 2.9%3 and high yield bonds returned 7.4%4. Client accounts benefitted from these returns, given our modest allocation to high yield bonds and our higher allocation to corporate bonds versus the market. As the cycle matures, we believe that high yield bonds may experience more volatility. Therefore this quarter, we continued to reduce exposure to high yield in favor of investment grade bonds.
In the first quarter of 2019, the portfolio’s alternative investments had strong positive performance. Positions in both domestic and international real estate investments generated solid gains for the period. More specifically, domestic real estate investments benefitted from a continued robust economy. Commodities also posted positive returns over the first quarter, as growth showed signs of picking up in China, which is one of the world’s largest commodities consumers. Finally, certain multi-strategy funds that seek to identify and invest in market trends within global bonds and commodities had more challenged returns, due to volatility in these areas during the period. We maintain exposure to alternative investment strategies in your account based on their ability to help provide differentiated sources of returns during certain phases of the business cycle when compared to more traditional stock and bond funds
A key driver for continued global economic improvement relies on the effectiveness of Chinese policy moves. Today, China is in the midst of another slowdown, which has put downward pressure on industrial sectors of Europe and other export-oriented economies. Consistent with previous slowdowns, Chinese policy makers are seeking to stimulate growth through various mechanisms, including infrastructure spending, tax cuts, and lower interest rates. In addition, it appears that the U.S. and China are getting closer to resolving some of their trade issues. Should these measures feed into the global economy through increased imports, exports, and business activity, they may help support global economic growth.
* The CFA designation is offered by the CFA Institute. To obtain the CFA charter, candidates must pass three exams demonstrating their competence, integrity, and extensive knowledge in accounting, ethical and professional standards, economics, portfolio management, and security analysis, and must also have at least three years of qualifying work experience, among other requirements.
1 MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index)
2 Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index
3 Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index
4 Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Master II Constrained Index
Keep in mind that investing involves risk. The value of your investment will fluctuate over time and you may gain or lose money.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Diversification cannot ensure a profit or guarantee against loss.
Indexes are unmanaged. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
The views expressed in the foregoing commentary were prepared by Strategic Advisers, Inc., based upon information obtained from sources believed to be reliable but not guaranteed. This commentary is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute a current or past recommendation, investment advice of any kind, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or investment services. The information and opinions presented are current only as of the date of writing without regard to the date on which you may access this information. All opinions and estimates are subject to change at any time without notice.
Alternative investment strategies can invest in securities that may have a leveraging effect (such as derivatives and forward-settling securities), which may increase market exposure, magnify investment risks, and cause losses to be realized more quickly. These strategies may invest in commodity-linked investments, which may be more volatile and less liquid than the underlying instruments or measures. The commodities industry can be significantly affected by commodity prices, world events, import controls, worldwide competition, government regulations, and economic conditions. Short positions pose a risk because they lose value as a security’s price increases; therefore, the loss on a short sale is theoretically unlimited.
Index information:
Securities indexes are unmanaged and are not subject to fees and expenses typically associated with managed accounts or investment funds. Benchmark returns assume the reinvestment of dividends and interest income. Investments cannot be made directly in a broad-based securities index.
The Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index is a float-adjusted, market capitalization–weighted index of all equity securities of U.S.-headquartered companies with readily available price data.
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is a market value–weighted index of investment-grade fixed rate debt issues, including government, corporate, asset–backed, & mortgage–backed securities, with maturities of one year or more.
The Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Master II Constrained Index is a market value-weighted index of all domestic and yankee high-yield bonds, including deferred interest bonds and payment-in-kind securities. Issues included in the index have maturities of one year or more and have a credit rating lower than BBB-/Baa3, but are not in default.
Other disclosures:
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Our view on U.S. interest rates
Some news outlets have reported that the U.S. economy may soon enter an economic recession due to recent trends in interest rates. In our view, these interest rate moves are merely a reflection of slower economic growth, rather than a reliable signal of what’s to come.
In fact, we see signs that the U.S. economy continues to grow. For example, employment remains healthy and wages are rising slowly. Consumers and businesses can also obtain loans for spending and investment, key drivers of economic growth.
As to the Fed, it has signaled a pause in future interest hikes. This reflects their view that the economy is growing slowly, and thus, inflation is not a significant concern.
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