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Celebrating a Strong 2024: Ranked #2 Best Fund Family by Barron’s
Barron’s has published its annual Best Fund Families rankings, and we are proud to be ranked #2 overall out of 48 for 2024.
Out of 48 fund families, Sit Mutual Funds ranked:
- #1 in World Equity
- #1 in Mixed Equity
- #1 in Tax-Exempt Bond
- #11 in Taxable Bond
- #12 in General Equity
These rankings are based on performance for the 2024 calendar year. Additionally, our firm holds the #1 overall out of 46 for the past 5 years and is #8 overall out of 46 for the past 10 years.
The full article is available on online.
An achievement that reflects our team’s expertise and focus on delivering strong results. Looking forward to another strong year ahead.
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Barron’s rankings are based on asset-weighted returns in five categories – general equity funds; world equity funds; mixed asset funds; taxable bond funds; and tax-exempt bond funds as calculated by LSEG Lipper. Barrons did not include 12b-1 fees, fund loads, or sales charges in calculating returns. Each fund’s return was measured against those of all funds in its Lipper category, resulting in a percentile ranking which was then weighted by asset size, relative to the fund family’s other assets in its general classification. If a family’s biggest funds do well, that boosts its overall ranking; poor performance in its biggest funds hurts a firm’s ranking. To be included in the ranking, a firm must have at least three funds in the general equity category, one world equity, one mixed equity (such as a balanced or target-date fund), two taxable bond funds, and one national tax-exempt bond fund. Single-sector and country equity funds are factored into the rankings as general equity. Barrons excludes all passive index funds, including pure index, enhanced index, and index-based, but includes actively managed ETFs and smart-beta ETFs, which are passively managed but created from active strategies. Finally, the score is multiplied by the weighting of its general classification, as determined by the entire LSEG Lipper universe of funds.
Market Commentary
May 8, 2025
The backward-looking “hard data” point to an economy still growing at a solid pace. However, recession odds have surged over the past month as the so-called “soft data,” or forward-looking opinion surveys, have weakened materially on record-high policy uncertainty. Businesses are delaying capital spending until policy clarity improves, and consumers expect inflation and job losses to spike. Although “soft data” can provide false signals, the economic outlook remains squarely skewed to the downside until tariff risks subside significantly.
Higher tariffs, which will slow economic growth, increase prices, and raise the possibility of job losses, have put the Federal Reserve in a pickle and lifted the odds of a policy mistake. Stagflation is a scenario that central bankers dread – do they tackle the “stag” (with rate cuts) or the “flation” (with rate hikes)? As widely expected, the Federal Reserve maintained its wait-and-see approach and left rates unchanged following its May 6-7 meeting. While tariffs should have a one-time impact on prices, potential supply chain disruptions may contribute to inflation persistence and unmoor expectations. Even so, we think the Federal Reserve will have no choice but to ease (maybe aggressively) if job losses mount and spending wanes. Fed fund futures now imply an 83 percent probability of a 25 basis point rate cut at the next FOMC meeting in June and a 17 percent probability of a 50 basis point cut.
We expect equities to remain volatile heading into the second half of the year. As a result, we continue to favor financials, given their lower first-order trade sensitivity, strong capital positions, and potential to benefit from a recovery in capital markets activity. We are also adding to defense stocks ahead of a likely sizable increase in U.S. defense spending in fiscal 2026 and sharp increases overseas. Portfolios are underweight consumer staples, as tariffs add downside risk to an already soft growth outlook. We have also become more cautious on energy as increased Saudi production adds to oversupply concerns.
For our latest full Global Investment Outlook & Strategy Update, download the .pdf document.
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