Invest Cautiously for the Months Ahead

What Happened in August?

In August, equities struggled, likely due to concerns of further anticipated restrictive monetary policy. For the month, internationally developed equities were among the worst performers (-6.1%), followed by US growth stocks (-5.1%) and US small-caps (-4.3%). Bonds also had a challenging month as investment grade corporates declined 4.4%, high yield credit returned -4.3%, and 7-10 Year US Treasuries fell 3.9%. Commodities produced negative returns as silver was down 11.3%, crude oil fell 6.3%, gold decreased 2.9% and broad-based commodities declined 0.4%.