Riskier funds see stronger gains

Article Excerpt

October turned out to be a great month for all kinds of riskier assets. Top performers were commodities, with oil and copper leading the way. Precious metal producers also made strong gains while the energy and commodity-heavy Canadian indexes were spurred by those gains. Performing less well were fixed-income ETFs. Ongoing inflation concerns pushed interest rates higher, which in turn pulled fixed-income ETFs lower. At the broad market level, the Vanguard Total World Stocks ETF(VT) gained 5.2% in October. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) managed to do even better with a 7.0% gain, while the iShares MSCI Canada Equity ETF(EWC) left most other major markets behind with a 7.9% rise in U.S. dollars (4.6% gain in Canadian dollars). The iShares Emerging Markets ETF(IEMG) lagged with a 1.9% gain in the month. Several of the large emerging markets lost value during the month including India, Chile, and Brazil. Fixed income did not have a good month as inflation concerns pushed interest rates higher. The Vanguard International Bond ETF(BNDX) lost…