Weak YTD Returns Are Not Just a US Phenomenon

The weak start to the year for the domestic stock market has been getting all the press, but the truth is that returns have been lackluster pretty much everywhere. Below we show the equally weighted performance by country for all developed markets and note that only four countries have managed to post YTD gains. The core of Europe is lagging badly (down about 2% so far) while the US is somewhere in the middle (down about .9%). Even last year's darling market (Japan) has posted a YTD loss.



Further inspection also indicates that only 29% of stocks in the MSCI World Index have gained so far this year.