Thinking about the past three months, the word divergence comes to mind. Within equities, U.S. stocks continued to pull away from global peers as the U.S. economy furthered similar feats of distinction. Beginning later in the quarter and hastening in the current one, the domestic bond market sank anew, representing for many a departure from the conventional view of bonds as a source of relative safety. Despite the scale of these near- and medium-term shifts, we continue to believe that most portfolios may benefit from the additional diversification global equity exposures provide. And while the rising-rate environment may continue to weight bond returns in the nearer term, we remain confident in the belief that fixed income may provide appropriate portfolio ballast for those wishing to dampen equity-driven volatility.