Stocks continued upward in April with the S&P 500 Index posting a gain of 1.9%, representing its sixth consecutive positive month. Foreign stocks, as measured by the MSCI EAFE Index, also moved higher in April, ending the month with a 5.3% return. After two months of underperformance, foreign stocks topped their domestic counterparts by a meaningful margin.
The timing of the turnaround in foreign stocks proved fortunate as our system generated a sell signal on many of our international funds in April. However, as is sometimes the case, we thought that the signal was bad. Foreign stocks had outperformed domestic stocks for six consecutive months (August to January) and by a wide margin during that timeframe (18.7% to 9.9%, respectively). It struck us as odd that just two subsequent months of underperformance (February and March) could sink what appeared to be a strong, emerging trend in foreign stocks…
Please watch the video below of our complete Market Analysis.