The poorest performing emerging market index was Hungary, at -7.59%, contributing to emerging markets losing 0.72% overall compared to developed markets being down -1.84%.
The best performing emerging markets were Thailand (12.10%), Peru (10.89%), Philippines (7.64%) and Indonesia (+6.98%); the best performing developed markets were New Zealand (4.42%), Singapore (3.99%) and Japan (3.63%).
The worst performing developed markets were Finland (-10.08%), Italy (-9.43%), Spain (-8.06%) and France (-7.75%).
S&P senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt explained that the US debt crisis “took hold of markets” in the last week of July, turning a global gain of 1.29% into a loss of 1.7%.
“While the US debt problem is a major issue, it is still considered political to some extent, whereas for European countries the debt issues are a matter of financial survivorship,” he added.
In terms of global markets, July reversed the year-to-date trend with emerging markets doing better than developed markets. So far in 2011, emerging markets are off 2.93% while developed markets are up 2.34%.
Summary of other year-end positions:
- Ten-year Treasury finished July down by 37 basis points to 2.8%, from year-end 2010 close of 3.29%;
- 30-year Treasury decreased 25 bps to 4.14% from 4.34%;
- The euro closed at 1.4381 from 1.3363;
- The pound closed at 1.6425 from 1.5593;
- The yen closed at 0.0130 from 0.01232.
