Global Markets Continued To Slide In February, But There Were Exceptions
James Picerno | Mar 01, 2022 09:36AM ET
Most markets around the world continued to slide in February, marking the second month of widespread losses in 2022 for the major asset classes. The main exceptions: commodities and inflation-indexed government bonds.
A broad measure of commodities posted another strong monthly gain in February. WisdomTree Continuous Commodity Index Fund (NYSE:GCC) rose 7.5%, building on the previous monthly’s solid advance.
Elevated inflation around the world, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, helped lift prices of inflation-indexed bonds last month. A pair of ETFs tracking US and foreign government securities indexed to inflation posted modest gains (TIP and WIP, respectively).
Otherwise, losses prevailed in February. The deepest setback: bonds issues by emerging market governments via VanEck J.P. Morgan EM Local Currency Bond ETF (NYSE:EMLC), which tumbled 4.9% last month.
The Global Market Index (GMI) also suffered in February. This unmanaged benchmark (maintained by CapitalSpectator.com), which holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights, lost 2.3% last month. Year to date, GMI is off nearly 7%.
Reviewing GMI’s performance relative to US stocks and bonds over the past year continues to reflect a solid middling performance for this multi-asset-class benchmark (blue line in chart below). US stocks via Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:VTI) earned nearly 11.9% for the trailing one-year window. By contrast, a broad measure of US bonds — Vanguard Total US Bond Market via Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:BND) — fell 2.6%. GMI earned 3.3% for the year ended Feb. 28.
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