Tag Archives: S&P 500
What’s in a U.S. Equity Index?
2022 was the worst year for U.S. equity indices since 2008’s Global Financial Crisis, with the S&P 500® entering a bear market and declining 18% in 2022. Despite the market blues, there were some relative winners: the S&P DJI U.S. Core Indices beat their MSCI counterparts last year, driven by differences in their methodologies. Below…
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GICS Changes Are upon Us
As time passes, we draw ever closer to the date of the GICS® changes scheduled to take effect after the market close on March 17, 2023. There are five changes being implemented, some of which will move companies among sectors and others that will move companies within sectors. Recent blogs have announced these changes: GICS…
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SPIVA U.S. Scorecard 2022: Fewer Excuses
For over a decade, our SPIVA® Scorecards have shown a majority of actively managed U.S. large-cap equity funds underperforming the S&P 500®. According to the freshly published SPIVA U.S. Year-End 2022 Scorecard, the annual underperformance rate dropped to the slimmest of margins last year: just 51% of large-cap U.S. managers lagged the S&P 500 in…
- Categories Equities, Fixed Income
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- Equities, Fixed Income
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S&P U.S. Indices Year-End 2022: Analyzing Relative Returns to Russell
2022 was a challenging year across asset classes, including equities. Exhibit 1 shows that there were declines across the U.S. equities market cap spectrum. For example, the S&P 500® fell 18% for the whole year; the gains in the fourth quarter were not sufficient to overcome the declines during the first three quarters. Amid the…
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Momentum’s Mystique
I confess some superhero powers underwhelm me (really, Hawkeye, arrows?) or stretch credulity further than Hulk’s hyper-elastic jeans. However, one I can appreciate is Mystique, the shape-shifting mutant who constantly alters her appearance to stay one step ahead. If factors were superheroes, I’d argue the S&P 500® Momentum Index (“Momentum”) and Mystique share commonalities, both…
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China Equities Diverge from Developed and Emerging Markets
China, the world’s second-largest market by both GDP and stock market capitalization, is showing itself to be a worthy diversifier, with low correlations to other equity markets. While many developed and emerging stock market indices have traded more in sync since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has performed differently, with both domestic China…
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Equities Recover
In the first seven weeks of 2023, U.S. equities regained a third of the ground lost in 2022 (down 18.1% in 2022 and up 6.5% YTD through February 17, 2023). Exhibit 1 shows that since its last rebalance, the S&P 500® Low Volatility Index, which seeks to mute the gyrations of the market in both…
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Peak Passive and Market Efficiency
With more than $7 trillion tracking the S&P 500 alone, we estimate that index funds now encompass between a quarter and a third of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market. This extraordinary growth must surely rank as one of the most important developments in contemporary financial history. When will it end? For at least…
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Active Ability versus Active Outperformance
Some commentators have argued that today’s market environment—characterized by rising rates and economic growth concerns—is a ripe environment for stock pickers. This argument is conditionally correct, as long as we remember that having the opportunity to add value does not guarantee that value gets added. In today’s environment, active managers have good potential to add…
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- Equities
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Balancing the Scales in U.K. Equity with the S&P 500
Our recent paper Why Does the S&P 500® Matter to the U.K.? argues that the S&P 500 presents an opportunity for U.K. investors to diversify their revenue exposure and sector weights across geographies. Since British investors typically suffer from a substantial home bias, such diversification presents an opportunity to improve the risk/return profile of a…
- Categories S&P 500 & DJIA
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