Advice and commodities drove asset class returns last week

Inflation-linked treasury bills and commodities were the best performers last week for the , based on a set of exchange traded funds.

The iShares TIPS Bond (NYSE 🙂 ETF rallied for a fourth straight week, gaining 0.8% in the five trading days through Friday, July 16. The gain took the fund to an all time high.

A close finalist last week: commodities in the broad sense. The WisdomTree Continuous Commodity Index Fund (NYSE :), an equally weighted portfolio, rose 0.6%.

Biggest losses last week: US and foreign developed market stocks, overtaken only by foreign real estate: ETF shares of the non-US global real estate index fund Vanguard (NASDAQ 🙂 fell by 1.8%.

Looking at all the major asset classes in a single portfolio, an ETF-based version of the Global Markets Index (GMI.F) was hit last week, falling 1.1%. This unmanaged benchmark (maintained by CapitalSpectator.com) holds all major asset classes (except cash) at market value weights via ETF proxies.

ETF performance Weekly returns

For one-year returns, US real estate investment trusts (REITs) took the lead over US stocks. Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE 🙂 is ahead 40.6% in terms of total return over the past 12 months. That’s slightly ahead of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE :), which is up 38.8% from a year ago.

US bonds remain the worst year-over-year performance for the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ 🙂 is down 0.6% for the one-year window.

Annual ETF Returns

Ranking the major asset classes via the current draw shows that most of our proxy ETFs are currently experiencing peak to trough declines of no more than -5%. US Inflation-Linked Government Bonds (TIPs) lead on this front with a 0% drop from peak to trough at Friday’s close. The main outlier: commodities (GCC), which currently has a drawdown of -30% and more.

Sample distribution history