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Market optimism towards the progress of the US-China trade talks, combined with strong corporate earnings season pushed US equities to new highs during the month. European equities also posted gains throughout the month as Germany narrowly avoided recession and pushed the DAX 2.87% higher over the month.

Over in Asia, the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act toward the end of the month was seen as a potential headwind for the ongoing trade negotiations.

Returns were mostly positive across geographic mandates in November, with fund managers focusing on North America up 1.15%, outperforming their European and Asia ex-Japan peers who were up 0.84% and 0.61%, respectively.

Japanese hedge funds returned 1.00% over the month of November, thanks to the announced fiscal stimulus, which resulted in strong equity market performance. Across strategies, long/short equities, event driven and multi-strategy fund managers were up 1.39%, 1.04% and 1.02% respectively throughout the month.

Roughly 67.9% of the underlying constituents of the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index posted positive returns in November, and 31.5% of the hedge fund managers in the database were able to maintain double-digit returns over the first 11 months of 2019.

Key highlights for the month of November 2019

Hedge fund managers were up 0.84% in November, pushing their year-to-date return to 7.22%. Expectations over the completion of the US-China phase one deal supported the risk sentiment among investors, which pushed the global equity market up 2.76% over the month. The MSCI ACWI (Local) was up 19.70% as of November 2019 year-to-date.

On an asset-weighted basis, hedge funds were up 0.73% in November, as captured by the Mizuho Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index (USD). The index was up 5.89% over the first 11 months of the year.

The Eurekahedge North American Hedge Fund Index edged 1.15% higher during the month, as positive risk sentiment and robust corporate earnings boosted US equity markets.

The Eurekahedge Greater China Hedge Fund Index was up 0.77% in November, up 12.45% year-to-date despite weak equity market performance across the region. Disagreements surrounding tariff rollback and US agricultural purchases, combined with the ongoing political uncertainties in Hong Kong continued to weigh on the region's risk outlook.

Hedge fund managers utilising fixed income strategies were up 0.22% in November despite weakness in the global government bond market throughout the month. The ECB and the Fed have signalled that they are done with stimulus for the time being, resulting in higher yields. The Eurekahedge Fixed Income Index was up 6.76% year-to-date.

Fund managers utilising AI/machine learning strategies returned 3.43% in November. On a year-to-date basis, the Eurekahedge AI Hedge Fund Index was up 6.34%.

The Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index was down 8.33% in November, outperforming Bitcoin which ended the month down 16.21%. Fund managers focusing on crypto-currencies are up 21.02% over the first 11 months of 2019.