All categories among master trusts in the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service had negative returns in the second quarter, with a median -1.58%.
Corporate defined benefit plans had the best performance among the master trusts, returning a median -0.88%, nearly a percentage point higher than other fund types.
Public defined benefit funds returned a median -1.73%; foundations and endowments, -1.77%; and Taft-Hartley plans, -1.98%.
In the first quarter, the median return for all institutional master trusts was 7.42%.
The Wilshire 5000 Total Market index returned -3.13% for the second quarter with the Wilshire Global ex-U.S. index at -8.18%. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate returned 2.06% for the quarter.
For the 12 months ended June 30, corporate defined benefit plans were far and away the top performers at a median 3.68%, largely due to their high median allocation to fixed income. Taft-Hartley plans returned 1.3%; followed by public DB plans, 1.15%; and foundations and endowments, 0.37%. Corporate DB plans also had the top median returns for three, five and 10 years.
All master trusts with assets greater than $1 billion returned a median -1.31% for the quarter and 1.8% for the year. However, corporate plans of that size returned -0.59% and 4.22%, respectively.
Wilshire TUCS comprises about 655 master trusts with $2.85 trillion in assets.
