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The first quarter of 2023 is in the books. If you only looked at how markets performed at the index level, you might think that not much happened (or at least nothing to fret about).

Every major stock market index finished Q1 in the green - the NASDAQ-100 even had its best showing (+20.5%) since the rapid bounce back seen in Q2 2020 after the pandemic-induced selloff. Bond returns were positive too, thanks to big drops in yields across the curve. 

Of course, the solid headline performance masked some stress under the surface. After March's regional bank failures, the S&P 500 Financials sector lost -6% to finish at the bottom of the pack. Oil prices tumbled as rising recession risks weighed on expectations for demand going forward, dragging the S&P 500 Energy sector (-5.6%) down with them — although prices sharply rose today following OPEC’s output cut announcement.

To be sure, every bout of market volatility and every recession is unique in its own ways. But if we're taking one thing away from the wild ride of the past three months, it's that staying invested - even when things feel most uncertain or bleak - is engrained in investment wisdom for a reason. 

Performance Of Global Assets in Q123

Performance of global assets in Q123

Source: FactSet. Data as of March 31, 2023. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

All market data from Bloomberg Finance L.P., 4/2/23

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Standard and Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index of 500 stocks. The index is designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries. The index was developed with a base level of 10 for the 1941–43 base period.

Standard and Poor’s 500 Information Technology Index comprises those companies included in the S&P 500 that are classified as members of the GICS information technology sector.

The Nasdaq-100 is a stock market index made up of 101 equity securities issued by 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock market. It is a modified capitalization-weighted index. The stocks' weights in the index are based on their market capitalizations, with certain rules capping the influence of the largest components.

Small capitalization companies typically carry more risk than well-established "blue-chip" companies since smaller companies can carry a higher degree of market volatility than most large cap and/or blue-chip companies.

All market and economic data as of March 2023 and sourced from Bloomberg and FactSet unless otherwise stated.

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