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Over the last 20 years, markets have experienced many shocks and recessions, including the Asian currency crisis, the Russian debt default, the dot-com crash of the early 2000s, and the recent global financial crisis. When these events occur, investors frequently attempt to reduce (or increase) investments to certain asset classes in order to lower exposure to (or take advantage of) the situation.
In 2008, the global financial crisis caused U.S. large stocks and international stocks to perform poorly, with losses of 37.0% and 43.1%, respectively, while bonds rose by 25.9%. In the wake of the recession, bonds performed very well in 2011, returning 28.2% as concerns about a possible double-dip recession grew. In the same year, international stocks fell 11.7%, most likely the result of events such as the sovereign debt crisis that rippled throughout the global landscape.
For all asset classes, demand and supply determine the market price of an investment. Understanding this trend may help investors ascertain how an asset class fits into their portfolio. Starting in 2007, annual net asset fund flows into U.S. stock funds became negative and stayed that way through 2012. Flows into bond funds, on the contrary, reached a peak in 2009 and remained high in 2010, 2011, and 2012 as investors flocked to relatively safer assets. As bond returns grew unusually high over the last few years, flows into bond funds may have increased as investors chased bond performance. Interestingly, outflows from U.S. stock funds continued despite U.S. large stocks showing positive returns since 2009. Was chasing bond performance the right thing for investors to do, or did investors just miss out on the returns of U.S. large stocks over the last couple of years?
About the data
U.S. Large Stocks—S&P 500® Index, which is an unmanaged group of securities and considered to be representative of the U.S. stock market in general. International Stocks—Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World ex-U.S. Index. Bonds—20-year U.S. government bond. Annual Net Asset Fund Flows: U.S.-domiciled open-end fund flows from Morningstar. Start date of 1994 constrained by data availability. U.S. stock: funds that primarily invest in U.S. stocks; International stock: funds that invest in specific regions or a diversified mix of international stocks with 40% or more in foreign stocks; Bond: taxable bond funds (government, corporate, international, emerging markets, high yield, multisector) that invest primarily in fixed-income securities of varying maturities.
