New York (HedgeC0.net) – The selling that hit almost all asset classes last seek took a toll on investors, but hedge funds held up better than most other investment vehicles. According to the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index, the hedge fund industry saw a dip of 0.8% for the week ending December 8.

During the same period, the S&P 500 fell 1.86%, the Bloomberg Commodity Index dropped 3.16% and high-yield credit fell 2.52%. The asset class that most closely matched the performance of the hedge fund index were government bonds. The iShares 20-year treasury ETF lost 0.82% on the week.

Within the various hedge fund styles, equity long/short, merger arbitrage and fixed income funds saw modest losses and that helped offset larger losses by commodity-based and global macro funds. The Lyxor Weekly Brief showed these two styles down 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively. On a year to date basis, the asset classes mentioned above – stocks, government debt, high-yield debt and commodities, are all in negative territory.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest