Emerging-markets funds in particular have had a good year, up more than 30%.

The U.S. stock market continues to be boosted by solid earnings gains by large companies. Even though many analysts fret about the high valuations for U.S. stocks—and many are advising that investors redirect more money to overseas markets—the skepticism hasn’t ended the market’s string of record highs yet.

Tech stocks, particularly large ones, are dominating.

“It has been quite a bit of a one-sided market performance. Tech and health care have been carrying the weight throughout the year,” says Omar Aguilar, chief investment officer for equities at Charles Schwab Investment Management in San Francisco.

Mr. Aguilar says that the other dynamic has been dollar deprecation, which has helped the economy and large-cap multinational stocks.

”We started the year by proposing that people needed to move more money internationally and reallocate from the U.S.,” he says. “We still believe that is the case. The U.S. is already at the end of the [economic] cycle.” That said, he says he remains optimistic that it will be a positive year for stocks in 2018, both in the U.S. and overseas. And, he says, “I’m more optimistic than six weeks ago” because of recent economic data.

Bond funds up 3.1% for 2017

Bond funds fell modestly on the month. The Federal Reserve is likely to raise short-term interest rates again in December during its midmonth policy meeting. But so far, investors have taken the Fed’s measured rate-increase actions as a sign of confidence in the economy.

Source: The Wall Street Journal