ACG’s May 2022 Capital Markets Review

Markets started to regain some footing during the latter half of May after several consecutive weeks of declines. Volatility remained high relative to recent history, as equity markets briefly breached technical “bear market” territory before rallying.
The S&P 500 was basically unchanged in May and is now down -12.76% for the year.
The Energy sector continued building momentum and was by far the best performing sector in May with a 15.77% gain.

Value stocks saw continued outperformance in relation to Growth stocks. The Russell 1000 Value Index finished the month up 1.94% while its Growth counterpart fell -2.32%. Rotation from Growth to Value names has been a theme all year.
Developed International and Emerging Market equities have been surprisingly resilient given some of the geopolitical strife abroad. The MSCI EAFE and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes have each slightly outperformed the U.S. based S&P 500 for the month and the year.
Bond markets have also dealt with increased volatility, although the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index was up 0.64% in May. Fixed income markets are still negative across the board for the year in the face of inflation and resulting tighter Fed policy.

Sources: Morningstar Direct, MSCI

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