We looked at the emerging markets returns and S&P 500 sector returns chart for 2023 in two posts earlier. In the post below let’s take a quick look at the asset class returns chart from 2009 to 2023 that was also published by Novel Investor. As expected, large caps were the winners in 2023 followed by international developed stocks. Cash was the worst performer with a return of 5.15% followed by high-yield bonds.

Over the past 15 years, large caps as denoted by the S&P 500 crushed all other assets with a return of over 610%. International developed stocks lagged by a substantial margin with a return of just 193%.

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Source: Novel Investor

We reviewed the S&P 500 sector performance chart for 2023 in an earlier post. The following chart shows the emerging markets returns by country from 2009 to 2023 also published by Novel Investor. Last year Hungary was the best performing emerging market followed by Greece and Poland. Who would have thought that Greece, which was in the midst of a sovereign debt crisis a few years ago, would be one the top performing markets in 2023. Mexico also had an excellent return at over 41%.

The worst performing market last year was China.

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Source: Novel Investor

The latest edition of the annual S&P sector performance chart for the S&P 500 was published by Novel Investor this week. In 2023, the best performing sector was the tech sector as represented by INFT, the S&P 500 Information Sector Index. The sector annual return’s was over as astonishing 57%. The next top performers were communication services and consumer discretionary index. The strong returns of consumer discretionary sector shows consumers for the most part did not reduce spending with high inflation levels.

The worst performing sectors were utilities, energy and consumer staples in that order. Utility stocks have not received much love from investors lately since as income stocks they have sever competition from CDs, bonds and other asset classes that pay comparable rates or even better returns. For instance, a 1-year CD paying 5% is irresistible to an investor that might have put the money in utility stocks in the past.

Note: The returns shown below are based on Total Returns which includes dividends reinvested.

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Source: novelinvestor.com

Source: Novel Investor

Related ETFs:

1. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
2. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)
3. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)
4. SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG)

The Complete List of stocks in the S&P 500 Index as of Jan, 2024 can be found here.

Disclosure: No positions