August was a cruel month for equities throughout the globe! Here in the US, the S&P 500, the most representative of the major equity indices, fell 6.1%. Ouch. But looking at that number in a vacuum is not very helpful.

Across a wide range of indices, the US market was one of the strongest performers, even stronger than China although China’s gross domestic product was almost 10 times higher.
Across our Global Macro model’s Global Equity market league tables, here was the score for August 2011:

1.Greece = down -23.9%

2.Germany = down -19.2%

3.Italy = down -15.6%

4.Russia = down -13.4%

5.Austria = down -12.7%

6.South Korea = down -11.9%

7.France = down -11.3%

8.Argentina = down -10.7%

9.Sweden = down -10.6%

10.Taiwan = down -10.4%

11.Hang Seng = down -8.5%

This is where diversity amongst different assets and exposure to fixed income securities comes in handy!