U.S. investors pushed equity funds to their worst quarterly performance since Q4 2008 in Q1 2020 as a novel coronavirus played havoc on the world’s citizens and an oil reduction dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia and a subsequent decline in global oil demand sent oil prices to an 18-year low. For Q1 2020, the average equity fund posted a 22.33% decline, with Lipper’s Alternative Equity Funds macro-classification (-4.56%) mitigating losses better than the other six major equity groups for the first quarter in five. In this segment, I highlight the Q1 and March 2020 performance results for equity mutual funds and ETFs.
Summary:
- For Q1 2020, equity funds (-22.33% on average) posted their worst quarterly returns since Q4 2008. Lipper’s Alternative Equity Funds macro-classification (-4.56%) mitigated losses better than the other six broad-based equity group, followed by Mixed Assets Funds (-15.20%) and Commodities Funds (-19.08%).
- The Alternative Equity Funds and Commodities Funds macro-classifications housed four of the five best performing classifications in the equity universe for Q1, with Dedicated Short Bias Funds (+33.25%) posting the strongest returns in the equity universe.
- The Domestic Sector Equity Funds macro-classification was dragged down by poor quarterly performance from Energy MLP Funds (-51.49%) and Natural Resources Funds (-44.54%).
- Large-cap (-19.45%) and growth-oriented (-18.14%) domestic equity funds outpaced the other capitalization and style groups for Q1, with small-cap and value-oriented funds taking it on the chin.
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