May 2023 Monthly Index Returns

Welcome to June and the start of summer.  Hope everyone is able to enjoy some time outside grilling, by the pool, or whatever you enjoy.

In stocks (equities):

• Like the last several months, it was a bit of a mixed bag for May.
• In the US, large cap growth as an asset class was the highest performer, but it isn't necessarily as rosy as it may look.  Breaking it down a little further, an email from Goldman Sachs showed through May 26 the YTD return of the S&P 500 was 10% (yes, this is more of a large core benchmark, but its largest holdings are large growth focused, so using it as an example).  However, the return of seven stocks (META, AMZN, AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, TSLA, NVDA) were combined to increase by 44% YTD, meaning the remaining 493 stocks in the S&P 500 were up a collective 1%.  Simply, the rally in large growth is concentrated in just a handful of stocks and not broad based.
• International securities were down across the board with MSCI EAFE and EAFE Small Cap both declining -4.2%, EM falling -1.7%, and non-US REITS going down by -5.6%.
• While US small cap value fell by -2.0% during May and -11.5% over the last 1 yr, it still has the highest 3 yr annualized equity return of 13.6%.

In bonds (fixed income):

• Except for the 3 month tbill (0.4%) and Global Agg ex-US hedged USD (0.1%), all other fixed income benchmarks shown were negative for the month with 10+ year Treasuries and Corporates falling the most at -2.8% and -2.7% respectively  (this is a very small allocation for most clients).
• The debt ceiling debate brought volatility to the Treasury market and increased yields across the Treasury curve.  For example, the 3 month Treasury increased by 42 bps, the 2 yr went up by 36 bps and the 10 yr increased by 20 bps.
• All fixed income benchmarks shown were positive on a YTD basis through May 31, though 1 yr returns are still mainly negative.

Please let us know if you have any questions by emailing 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.