Hobbled by fears of trade wars, the staff changes in the White House, a breach of trust by Facebook, and inflation woes, investors pushed the broad-based market indices to their first quarterly loss in ten. And for Q1 2018 the average equity fund posted a return of minus 0.56%, with Lipper’s World Equity Funds macro-classification (+0.11%) landing at the top of the four major equity groups for the fourth quarter in five. In this segment I highlight the March and first quarter 2018 performance results for equity mutual funds and ETFs.
Highlights
- For Q1 2018 equity funds (-0.56% on average) posted their first quarterly loss in ten. Lipper’s World Equity Funds macro-classification (+0.11%) jumped to the top of the leader board for the fourth quarter in five, followed by U.S. Diversified Equity (USDE) Funds (-0.38%), Mixed-Asset Funds (-0.85%), and Sector Equity Funds (-2.54%).
- The Sector Equity Funds macro-classification housed nine of the ten worst performing classifications in the equity universe for Q1, with Energy MLP Funds (-11.26%) being the universe laggard.
- Despite the late-month meltdown in select tech issues, growth-oriented funds continued to shine for Q1.
- Commodities Energy Funds (+6.33%) posted the strongest return of all the equity fund classifications for Q1.
Click here or the Download Full Report link in the upper right hand column of this page to download the First Quarter 2018 FundMarket Insight Report: Equity Funds Post for Q1 2018 the First Decline in Ten Quarters.
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