Capital markets continued to move ahead as the second quarter commenced, building on the rally that took hold in February and March. However, uncertainty regarding U.S. economic indicators and global events clouded investor sentiment in May and June. Negative headwinds included continued sovereign debt issues in southern Europe, fears of further slowing of China’s economy, and concerns that leading economic indicators had peaked and were starting to decline. Investor sentiment was further weakened by the ongoing amendments to the proposed financial regulation bill in the United States as well as the escalating clean-up and cost of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Global infrastructure securities as measured by the Dow Jones Brookfield Global Infrastructure Composite Index fared better than the broader global equity markets during the second quarter. The index was down 6.5 percent for the three-month period, while global equities as measured by the Dow Jones Global Eq