January 2021 Index Returns

Please see the information for the January 2021 Index Returns below.

In equities:

• Returns were mixed, both in the US and ex-US
• Small cap value continues its tear, rising 5.3% in January and topping all indexes shown.  The category also topped all indexes shown for the last three months, jumping 35.5% over the time period. 
• As a comparison during January, the S&P 500 fell 1%, MSCI EAFE declined 1.1% while the MSCI EM gained 3.1%

In fixed income:

• With the short end of the yield curve not changing much over the month, ST Treasury and Corp benchmarks experienced relatively flat returns for the month. 
• At the same time, the  5 year part of the curve and longer saw increases in yield throughout January, driving returns of Intermediate and Long term Treasury and Corp bonds returns into negative territory.  Intermediate and long term Treasuries saw their yields rise starting on January 6, when Democrats took control of the Senate after the Georgia run-off election, raising expectations for more government spending. 
• Munis experienced positive returns across the curve.
• ST TIPS gained 62 bps in January, the top FI performer for the month.

Finally, in case your clients are asking about what is going on with GameStop, I found the following sentence to be the best/funniest one-sentence depiction of what happened, including the link to the full article if you want to read more: The GameStop saga is a ludicrous stock mania born of pandemic boredom and FOMO, piggybacking off of a clever Reddit revenge plot, which targeted hedge funds, who made a reckless bet on a struggling retailer—and it’s going to end with lots of people losing incredible amounts of money.  Credit goes to this article for providing the sentence, the article itself also provides a good, easy overview if your clients want to learn more.

If you have any questions, please contact support@xyinvestmentsolutions.com

As an additional note, please keep in mind that these reflect historical performance of the current models, not necessarily how accounts were invested in the past.