Market Commentary: First Quarter

REBOUND! It’s what we might have been yelling at the TV as we watched our favorite team during the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. March madness is certainly an exciting time for basketball fans as they anticipate their tournament bracket doing well. REBOUND is exactly what has happened to global equities over the last three months. In our year-end commentary, we discussed about how quickly markets can move, and as bad as 2018 was, almost all of it was made up in the first quarter of this year.

As far as I know, there has never been a perfect NCAA bracket because the odds are nearly impossible, even though the strategy (say choosing the top seeded teams) may be a good one. Even though they didn’t have a perfect bracket, there were still a number of people who had predicted Virginia to win the title. Investing for the long-term can be similar in some regards. Investments are selected based on how they are expected to perform. Adjustments are made along the way to account for new research, new products, taxes, risk tolerance, time horizon, and other factors. At the end of the day, they are designed to put your goals in the winner’s bracket.

For the first quarter market recap, the performance of the S&P 500 Index was up 13.65%, the best quarter since 2009. The foreign markets, represented by the Europe, Australia, Far East Index (EAFE) were up 9.98%. Small companies represented by the Russell 2000 Index were up 14.58%. Bonds, represented by the Bloomberg Barclays US Government Credit 1-5 Index were up 1.62%.

We take our investment responsibilities seriously because we are passionate about helping you achieve your goals. Just like the NCAA tournament bracket, it is impossible to know the direction of the markets and individual asset classes over the next quarter or year, but we do know that a globally diversified portfolio strategy has helped our clients retire comfortably. Thank you for entrusting us to help you achieve your financial goals.