The MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) recorded a 0.00% return in July but investors would be forgiven forthinking that it had been a quiet month. Korean stocks shed almost one quarter of their value, the Philadelphia Semiconductor one fifth and global momentum stocks almost one tenth. But positive stories elsewhere helped steady the ACWI boat. We came into the second half of 2026 with some healthy gains from risk assets and with a broader dispersion of returns than that which we had become accustomed to, both within individual markets and across geographies and sectors. In many ways this is characteristic of a healthier market and for diversified investors like ourselves this was very much welcome and somewhat overdue. The market continued to oscillate around the on/o Trump Iran war rhetoric, and the second order inflation derivative that falls out from more entrenched higher oil, commodity and shipping costs.
