The month of January was characterised by a strong decline in the stock markets, as shown by the -6.12% return of the S&P 500.
This index, which fell for the third month in a row, finished the month at its level of October 2006. Market volatility is still very high, at a level comparable to that observed last summer during the subprime crisis. The fixed-income market recovered after its negative performance of last month, as illustrated by the strongly positive performance of 2.13% for the Lehman Global Bond Index.
Commodity prices, which reached historic highs last month, remained at the same level.
In this context, most of the hedge fund strategies registered negative performances, with only four of them posting positive returns (CTA Global, Fixed Income, Global Macro and Short Selling). Short Selling, the best-performing strategy with a return of 6.05%, strongly benefited from the falling stock markets. The lowest return was posted by Emerging Markets with -5.11%.