January was a rough month for many asset classes, stocks in particular. The weakest link: emerging markets, with equities in these countries retreating more than 6% last month, based on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The bias toward red ink weighed on the Global Market Index (GMI), which dropped 1.9%–the first monthly loss since last August. Despite the correction, GMI’s still comfortably in the black for the trailing one-year period, posting a 9.1% total return through last month, or moderately higher than the projected long-term performance for this passive benchmark of the major asset classes.
Continue reading →