Sage Advice Quarterly Market Review 1Q2011

During much of the first quarter and through April, investors seemed to be following a similar playbook; favor risk assets, hedge falling dollar risk and protect against inflation. Looking at ranked asset returns, these trends were evident with TIPS, high yield and non-dollar debt leading fixed income returns, and international equities and commodities outperforming among risk assets. These trends saw an abrupt reversal in May. While the equity market losses have been relatively small so far in May, the old adage of “Sell in May” would have worked quite well with regard to most risk assets.