As in the first quarter, stocks pulled back in April but managed gains at the end of the period. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% last month while the foreign stocks of the MSCI EAFE index rose 1.5%. Europe, which is the only region within the EAFE that we have interest in, gained 2.6% according to MSCI.
While our geographic focus remains set on the U.S. and Europe, we may be reshuffling our sector focus in the near future. Throughout this recovery we have been overweight economically-sensitive areas of the market like industrials and consumer discretionary, which have performed well over the last five years. However, in recent months including April, we have started to notice a shift in investor attention towards more defensive sectors like utilities and consumer staples. This led to underperformance last month…
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