Global stocks gained in the quarter with the advance led by developed markets, particularly U.S. stocks. Enthusiasm for AI (artificial intelligence) boosted a handful of technology stocks and drove strong market performance. For the quarter, U.S. large-cap stocks were up 8.7% and small-cap stocks gained 5.2%. In a continued reversal from last year's performance, U.S. growth stocks were up 12.8% for the quarter, outperforming value stocks which were up 4.1%. Foreign-developed stocks were up 3.2% while emerging stocks finished up 1.0%. Core U.S. bonds were down 1.0% for the quarter as U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly. Inflation-sensitive bonds were down 1.4% and high-yield bonds had a solid gain of 1.8%.
In this quarter's commentary, we focused on the following topics:
- Deja vu (all over again!): we discuss the similarities between today's stock market and the market environment of the late 1990s. We highlight the concentrated performance in the S&P 500 today.
- Values Abound: we review the valuation of several asset classes and discuss the potential for them to outperform, similar to what happened after the 1999 tech stock bubble collapsed.
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