Summary

• During 1Q26, the GS GQG Partners International Opportunities Fund outperformed the MSCI ACWI ex-USA (NET) benchmark by 547 basis points net of fees.
• Iran responded in March by targeting the energy infrastructure of its neighbors and closing the Strait of Hormuz, the lone seaborne export route from the Persian Gulf.
• A significant rotation in market leadership occurred in the S&P 500 from the technology sector and certain technology-adjacent industries to heavy asset, low obsolescence areas including utilities and energy.
• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. rose in the quarter as investors grew increasingly bullish on memory chip manufacturers as the transition to using LLMs for inference may drive higher memory chip demand.
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management remains skeptical that the current run rate of AI-related cap ex spending is sustainable and believes certain tech names are overearning.

Market Overview

During the 1Q26 period, the MSCI (MSCI) ACWI declined 3.20% even though six of the 11 sectors demonstrated a positive return. The sectors primarily responsible for the loss in the benchmark were Information Technology (-6.7%, detracting