It’s all about beta now — broad stock-market beta, which is deeply negative year to date. Pulling free from that downside force via an equity strategy is challenging. Surprising? Not really. History clearly shows that return correlations within the equities space tend to move close to 1.0 during sharp corrections and bear markets. In line with that track record, the broad sell-off in US stocks so far this year has weighed on an expansive set of ETFs representing various equity factor risks. But the degree of pain varies widely, which suggests that factor diversification, while hardly a silver bullet, is still worthwhile.

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* Russia and Ukraine meet for talks in Turkey as war rages on
* House passes bill to ban imports of Russian oil to US
* $1.5 trillion federal spending bill to fund US government approved in the House
* CIA director: a frustrated Putin will ‘double down’ and escalate military action
* UK economist sees a risk of high inflation persisting for years
* South Korea’s new president aims for tougher stance on North Korea
* China’s economy may face rising economic risk via fallout from Ukraine war
* Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurs rethink on how to assign country risk
* US job openings slipped in January but remain near record high: