Equity funds post worst quarter since late 2008

The average return of an equity mutual fund after the first quarter of 2020 was -22.3%, the steepest drop since the final quarter of 2008. Large-cap-equity focused funds held on the best compared to midcap and small-cap funds. U.S. large-cap funds, across value, core and growth styles, outperformed small-cap funds by about 11 percentage points. International funds had only a 5.3 percentage-point gap between large-cap and small- and midcap funds. Lipper doesn't breakout separate universes for the two market cap classes. Large-cap growth funds outperformed their style box peers in an environment that historically has favored value.

Lipper's target-date universe performances were consistent with their equity allocations. The higher-risk/higher-equity allocation fund universe returns were in line with the broader equity fund universes with returns improving as bond and other asset class allocations increased.