January was another rough month for most asset classes. It was tempting to think there were legs to December’s rebound, which ended the non-stop crushing losses of September-November. Eventually, the genuine rebound will come. In the meantime, there are false starts, as January reminds.
The good news is that last month wasn’t a complete sea of red ink. That’s an improvement over September’s and October’s across the board losses in the major asset classes. Nonetheless, the gains keeping us out of total red last month rested thinly on high-yield, emerging-market and inflation-indexed bonds.