Investment Review - May 2022
- After a positive month in March, equities declined in April. The S&P 500 lost -8.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back -4.9%. Technology stocks had a difficult month and the Nasdaq Composite fell -13.3%. All three of these indices are in the red year to date.
- Interest rates rose sharply during the month of April, extending their increases since the beginning of 2022. Fixed income investors have reacted to the Fed’s intention to tighten monetary policy more quickly and yields on bonds maturing two years and beyond increased on the order of 0.5% during the month. The price of bonds decline when interest rates rise and fixed income returns were also negative for April.
- Indices for both equities and fixed income have experienced double digit losses thus far in 2022. If both stocks and bonds post losses for the year, it would mark the first time this has occurred since 1994, also a year in which the Fed pursued an aggressive tightening of monetary policy.
Key Investment Statistics
Sources: Bloomberg LLC, FactSet, U.S. Commerce Department, Bloomberg Businessweek
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For more information, call Ed Sullivan, Vice President, at 617-557-9800, or email him at esullivan@welchforbes.com.