With just days left until the US election, the performance of North American equity funds domiciled in Australia since the announcement of Donald Trump as US president has varied significantly.
According to FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, there were 14 funds which sat in the North American equity sector.
Trump had been praised for boosting the economy with the S&P 500 returning 85% over his tenure so far to 28 October, 2020, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index returning 171%. This compared to returns of 35% over the same period by the ASX 200.
The country was also one of the few global markets to see positive returns during the COVID-19 pandemic with the S&P 500 returning 4.8% since the start of 2020.
The North America equities sector had seen an average return of 69% since 8 November, 2016.
The best-performing fund between 8 November, 2016, and 30 September, 2020, was BetaShares NASDAQ 100 ETF which returned 160% over the period. According to its latest factsheet, the fund’s top holdings were Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Tesla and it recently passed $1 billion in assets under management.
The BetaShares Geared US Equity Currency Hedged fund had also returned more than 100% with returns of 102%.
Other strong performers included VanEck Vectors Morningstar Wide Moat ETF, SSgA SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, SSgA SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Vanguard US Total Markets Shares Index ETF which all returned more than 80%.
However, at the other end of the spectrum, the BetaShares US Equities Strong Bear Hedge Currency Hedged fund had lost 79%. This fund was designed to perform positively when other markets were falling which meant it underperformed when US markets were strong. On an annualised basis, the fund had lost 33% per annum.
The ETFS S&P 500 High Yield Low Volatility ETF returned 8%, making it the second-worst performer although it still reported positive returns.
Looking at the funds on an annualised basis, the BetaShares NASDAQ 100 ETF was still the best-performing fund with annualised returns of 27.8% while the BetaShares Geared US Equity Currency Hedged fund saw returns of 19.8% per annum.
