USD November Market Commentary

Noteworthy Developments: Global equities, as represented by the MSCI ACWI Index, ended flat during the month with periods of high volatility.

Global Equities: Global equities were flat, with US large-cap equities (S&P 500) up 0.2%, international developed equities up 0.6% and emerging market equities down 2.4%.

As of Nov 21st, equity markets had sold off worldwide (down between 2.5% to 4.8%) as AI exposed equities (especially in the US and developing markets) were hit hard following concerns regarding large capex spending. However, markets rallied strongly across the board during the last week of the month, with increased expectations for US Federal Reserve interest rates helping sentiment.

Globally, growth stocks (-1.5%) underperformed value stocks (+1.8%). Sector performance was mixed with defensive sectors such as healthcare (+7.9%) and consumer staples (+3.6%) sectors performing best while technology (-4.9%) and consumer discretionary (-2.1%) performed worst. 

Fixed Income : The US Aggregate Bond Index was up 0.6%, with performance driven by coupon income and modest price appreciation from bond yields that declined 5bps to 10bps across various maturities. US government and investment grade bonds were up 0.6% to 0.7%. High-yield bonds were up 0.6% and leveraged loans were up 0.3%. Leveraged loan performance benefited from high coupon yields partially offset by modest spread widening.

Alternatives: The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index was up 0.1%, with most strategies delivering slightly positive or slightly negative performance. Convertible arbitrage (-1.0%) strategies performed worst.

Manager Comments: Eminence: -1.8% with underperformance vs. ACWI index (+0.2%) driven by idiosyncratic weakness in certain positions.