As regular readers are aware, we like to track performance off of major equity tops and lows. This simple exercise can help identify leadership trends. Not surprisingly, the counter-cyclical sectors have held up much better than the cyclical sectors since the overall equity market made high back in May. Health care, consumer staples, and utilities find their way to the top of the leader board pretty much no matter how you slice the data. Without further ado, let’s take a tour of performance since the MSCI ACWI topped out on 5/21/2015, all performance is in USD and on an equal-weighted basis.
The single best performing sector in the world has been by far and away health care. Global health care stocks are only off by 6.72% on average. The second best performing global sector has been consumer staples which has fallen by 9.29%. Cyclical sectors have performed the worst as financials have fallen by 24.80%, materials by 27.09% and energy by a whopping 40.7%. 
In the developed world, consumer staple stocks have performed the best as they have fallen by 5.1% on average. Health care is the second best performing sector (-9.9%) and utilities are the third best performing sector (-10.84%). Energy again takes the cake as the worst performing sector as DM energy stocks are off 42.53% on average. Material (-25.83%) and financials (-19.31%) again bring up the rear.
In the emerging world, health care stocks are actually 1.33% higher on average since MSCI ACWI topped out in May. EM health care stocks are, far and away, the best performing sector since May. The usual suspects (energy and financials) were the worst performers.
In the United States, consumer staples and utilities are keeping investors portfolios afloat. These two sectors are only off -3.73% and 4.33% respectively. Every other sector in the United States is firmly in correction territory with materials and energy in a bear market.
The overall five best performing stocks (out of 2900 from around the world) all come from emerging Asia. These stocks have all managed to at least nearly double while the indexes have fallen significantly. And remember this performance is in USD. Lastly, below are also the five best performing US stocks. Only about 21% of US stocks have positive performance since 5/21/2015.
5 Top Performing Stocks In Both EM and DM
5 Top Performing US Stocks
