This is my Q2 market update for 2018, and it was yet another interesting quarter.
President Trump pulled out of the Iran Deal, met with Kim Jon Ung of North Korea, the NASDAQ climbed to record highs and inflation continued to rise.
The U.S. market update is that they performed fairly well over this last quarter. In particular, U.S. small-cap companies and U.S. real estate did fairly well. That’s mostly because they’re less affected by what’s going on internationally.
International markets slid. In particular, companies held within emerging markets like India, Brazil and China – slid because the strength of the U.S. dollar got stronger, meaning the aid that they were able to obtain became more expensive and essentially tightened on them. Therefore, they slid for the second quarter.
Bonds, both short- and long-term, saw a slight uptick over this last quarter. What we’re looking for is to see how fast the short-term rates rise versus the long-term rates, as it could be a sign of a potential market slow down.
Because we don’t have all stocks or all bonds in our portfolios, here’s a look at how different portfolio mixes performed over this last quarter:
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