The big market story for the year through February has been foreign stock market leadership. Foreign stocks almost matched their excellent January performance (4.9%) in February (4.6%). Currency was not a significant driver of dollar-based returns in either period.
In February, US large company stocks slipped, declining by 0.9%, compared to January’s positive return of 1.5%.
Within US equities, the rotation out of large company US technology stocks has shifted from January’s move into small company stocks to February’s preference for non-technology large company US stocks.
The bond markets continued to show positive results. Intermediate- and long-term Treasury bond yields declined over the course of February. The 10-Year Treasury bond yield actually fell below 4% for the first time in several months. The benchmark for US Investment Grade Bonds returned 1.6% in February.
Here are results for February and 2026 Year-to-Date, compared to longer-term annualized returns (10-Year Trailing):
Note: YTD 2026 as of 2/28/2026; Source: Morningstar