Despite Nagging Tariff Concerns, Equity Funds on Average Post a Plus-Side Return for Q2 2018

Investors cautiously pushed equity mutual funds to their tenth quarterly gain in 11, generally shrugging off trade-war rhetoric during the quarter. For Q2 2018 the average equity fund posted a return of 1.77%, with Lipper’s Sector Equity Funds macro-classification (+3.90%) landing at the top of the four major equity groups for the first quarter in eight. In this segment I highlight the Q2 and June 2018 performance results for equity mutual funds and ETFs.

Summary:

• For Q2 2018 equity funds (+1.77% on average) posted their tenth quarterly gain in 11. Lipper’s Sector Equity Funds macro-classification (+3.90%) jumped to the top of the leader board for the first quarter in eight, followed by U.S. Diversified Equity (USDE) Funds (+3.71%), Mixed-Asset Funds (+0.58%), and World Equity Funds (-2.96%).
• The Sector Equity Funds macro-classification housed four of the five best performing classifications in the equity universe for Q2, with Commodities Energy Funds (+13.29%) being the universe leader.
• The World Equity Funds macro-group was dragged down by Latin American Funds (-17.62%) and Emerging Markets Funds (-8.85%).
• Small-cap (+6.91%) and growth-oriented (+6.08) domestic equity funds ruled the roost for Q2.

Click here or the Download Full Report link in the upper right hand column of this page to download the Second Quarter 2018 FundMarket Insight Report: Despite Nagging Tariff Concerns, Equity Funds on Average Post a Plus-Side Return for Q2 2018.

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