American shares recovered with a strong gain for the trading week through Friday, July 23, posting the highest increase for the , based on a set of exchange traded funds.
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:) rallied 2.3% last week, recovering all the losses in the previous week and then some. By the end of Friday’s trading, VTI settled at a new record high.
![VTI Weekly Chart VTI Weekly Chart](https://dasforex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/piccbea687cbc993f81d4978b1094a0d865.png)
At the other extreme, stocks in emerging markets suffered the deepest decline for the major asset classes last week. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:) fell 1.9%, dropping to the lowest close in over two months.
The combination of slowing growth in China and a strengthening are headwinds for emerging markets stocks, say analysts.
Measuring how all the major assets performed as one strategy reflects a solid gain last week. An ETF-based version of the Global Market Index (GMI.F) rose 1.4%—the best weekly gain in a month. This unmanaged benchmark (maintained by CapitalSpectator.com) holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights via ETF proxies.
![ETF Performance Weekly Returns ETF Performance Weekly Returns](https://dasforex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/pic383f7c82e454a70a3264777fcfb01ff8.png)
ETF Performance Weekly Returns
For the one-year window, US stocks continue to lead, if only slightly. VTI is up 40.7% on a total-return basis over the past 12 months. That’s modestly ahead of the second-best one-year performer: Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:), which is up 39.3% over the past year.
US investment-grade bonds remain the only one-year loser for the major asset classes. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:) is off 0.8% for the past year, even after factoring in distributions.
GMI.F’s one-year gain is a strong 26.1%.
![ETF Performance Yearly Returns ETF Performance Yearly Returns](https://dasforex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/picfd0b27fae4048fd1e1471e9ffaf1397d.png)
ETF Performance Yearly Returns
Ranking the major asset classes via current drawdown still shows that most of our proxy ETFs currently enjoy peak-to-trough declines of no more than -5%. US stocks (VTI) are the current leader for this metric via a 0% peak-to-trough decline as of Friday’s close. Meanwhile, commodities () are posting the deepest drawdown: nearly -30%.
GMI.F, by contrast, is at a record high and so the benchmark’s peak-to-trough decline is currently zero.
![Drawdown Distribution Histories Drawdown Distribution Histories](https://dasforex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/picd0fa806409f495075ffc81bb0fd08dab.png)
Drawdown Distribution Histories