Yes - the ship is tossing and floundering around looking for a port (reminiscent of “The Flying Dutchman” I was planning on seeing in May). I agree with @Catch22’s overall observation. Only a nut like me would try to predict. But here we go:
- Short rates have turned up since bottoming under 0.5% on the 10 year earlier. Finished at 0.8% today. The current conventional wisdom that U.S. rates will drop to 0 and than keep falling may be wrong. They may now be rising. Might relate to @Mark’s mortgage issue, as mortgage rates are closely linked to the 10 year treasury.
- Gold’s been hammered. Yet a lot of smart people have been high on it - Ray Dalio, Bill Fleckenstein, Mark Mobius among them. I’ve always thought gold was a manipulated market and this might be the “shakeout” of weaker hands in advance of another rise. Just a guess based on the easy money that’s flooded global markets for years.
- Equities. I’m amazed when people pour money into a fund that’s up 20, 30, 40% in a year’s time. Somehow that makes sense to them. But after a similar drop in value folks run away. Maybe that works for them. Wouldn’t for me.
Sorry - Diverging here. So I think (over the next year) it’s down for rate-sensitive bonds, up for the precious metals and sideways for global equities. The virus is nasty. Lot of unknowns. On the other hand - we haven’t been invaded by the Russians (physically), Trump hasn’t lobbed a Nuke at some little country (yet) and a spaceship from another planet hasn’t landed in Manhattan. (It just always looks that way.)
I’m beginning to rotate slowly out of RPGAX and back into DODBX. Risk reward factor is starting to favor the latter - especially if rates eventually rise, which they’ve long expected and positioned the fund for.
Best wishes. Stay well.

We're already at the target (2500 on the S&P) that I set for my dry powder at the start of this mess, but I'm afraid to pull the trigger. I probably will start to scale in soon-ish. Though I can't see any short-term triggers for a meltup, and I can see plenty of reasons for us to keep falling, so I'm not in any hurry.
On my likely buy list: VDIGX and GPGCX. I might also add a little to my small stake in TDVFX. Super volatile fund, should bounce back if the market does, but sure, right now I wish I'd never bought it.
Was considering PCI or PDI but yikes, I wish I understood better what was in Dan Ivascyn's magic sauce so I could grasp the risks, but I don't, so I'll probably steer clear.

@catch22- @davidmoran just posted a link to a current NYT article. Seems that you're not the only one wondering what's happening. Here's an excerpt:

Wednesday was an unsettling day on global financial markets, and not just because the stock market fell sharply enough to bring a decade-plus bull market to an end.
Underneath the headline numbers were a series of movements that don’t really make sense when lined up against one another. They amount to signs — not definitive, but worrying — that something is breaking down in the workings of the financial system, even if it’s not totally clear what that is just yet.
Bond prices and stock prices were moving together, not in opposite directions as they usually do. On a day when major economic disruptions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic appeared to become likelier — which might be expected to make typical market safe havens more popular — many of them fell instead. That included bonds of all sorts and gold.
And there were reports from trading desks that many assets that are normally liquid — easy to buy and sell — were freezing up, with securities not trading widely. This was true of the bonds issued by municipalities and major corporations but, more curiously, also of Treasury bonds, normally the bedrock of the global financial system.
People, it is fair to say, are worried about bond market liquidity.

I need to read more carefully: the Morningstar article was limited to the Morningstar 500 funds, which tend to be larger funds with full analyst coverage. That would explain the MCSMX absence.

About a 25% discount on U.S. large caps compared to only a couple months ago. Take that tongue-in-cheek. Stocks may still fall through the floorboards. But 25% off’s nothing to sneer at it either.
Looking at DJ around 22,000 at the moment compared to 29,000 earlier in year.

Re ASML:
So the limit order bought me 25 @ $246. Causing the market to immediately drop it to 240ish. What the hell... 25 more @ 240. We shall see.

As of this morning, the Shiller CAPE was 24.46 and falling.
Good news: that's probably a five-year low.
Bad news: that 50 year average looks to be 15-20.
So "the market" isn't classically cheap.
Sensible grown-ups, El-Erian most recently, are anticipating a 30% drop in the market. That's good news in a way, since we're already down by the low- to mid-20s.
Bought some cabarnet sauvignon (aged in bourbon barrels, good reviews, $10) at Aldi's yesterday, which represents my big purchases this week. Other than that, I continue to doggedly add my monthly pittance to RiverPark, Grandeur Peak, Seafarer and T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income. Don't see a lot of reason to change, though I know that my allocation is underweight US stocks so I'll need to buy some more BIAWX sooner than later.
For what that's worth,
David

I can get 3.5% tax-free and risk free by paying on my mortgage. Maybe that is the way to go. I mean, such a deal is not available elsewhere.

Ms Hsiao interview on Wealth Track (Dec 2018):

Manager Profile - Tiffany Hsiao:
https://us.matthewsasia.com/perspectives-on-asia/video-detail.fs?artID=1625
and,
https://citywireusa.com/professional-buyer/news/portfolio-manager-profile-matthews-asia-s-tiffany-hsiao/a1151333

In fairness, this fund has under performed MAPIX for most of its existence (2011).
Here's that chart:
https://screencast.com/t/5rmnxOrz2
The fund has two new managers (less than 3 years). Here's the more promising three year chart.
https://screencast.com/t/5vP4hqnn
Maybe a combination of these two funds would be a thought.

What do you see that is truly cheap on an absolute basis? I bought a little bit of BEN a few days ago at $19.95 because I thought it looked cheap.....well it just got cheaper.
I think BUD looks cheap today with a 4% yield and at 12 times consensus earnings. It's 60% off of its high. People have been drinking beer for thousands of years -- don't think they'll be stopping soon.
Anybody see anything (quality) that looks truly cheap on an absolute basis?

All others China region funds are negative (-2% to -12%). Interesting that the China Region funds in general have not been as beat down as US equity funds on a YTD comparison.
Matthews China Small Cap - MCSMX up 10%
Any thoughts on its out performance?
Its upside capture is 137 while its downside capture is 50
Only $140M in assets
ER 1.5%

FBIOX...and few others mentioned here:
best-biotech-mutual-funds
top-5-biotechnology-mutual-funds

Unfortunately, I don't see a relief because of the following:
1) Stocks meltdown
2) Interest rates are down but many bond fund categories are down in the last 2 weeks instead of up
3) Since Monday VIX is over 50. Last time it was over 50 happened in 2008-9
4) We can't quantify the coronavirus damage. The market wants/needs a number, any number. The unknown is worse than a specific number.

Hi guys ... Not much has changed with the barometer reading as it remains "pegged" on the high side at 180. Reviewing my shoppling list ... and, I still like equity income over fixed income. However, before I buy again I'm thinking the S&P 500 will continue to decline some more from it's present level of 2741. I currently have it off it's recent 52 week closing high of 3386 by 19% as I write. I'm wanting to see a decline somewhere between -20% (2710) to -25% (2540) before I buy again. Getting close by not there yet. And, they way things are looking today could become a buy day for me. Take care. Old_Skeet

Everything red today, no where to run even tgd funds
/Bear market
Logo
Chart Advisor | Focus on the Price
By Gordon Scott, CMT
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
1. Volatility pricing at foreboding levels
2. Some target funds look ugly right now
3. A remote portfolio
Market Moves
Stocks fell to their lowest close of the year so far and fell by a larger amount than any other day this year (besides Monday). Today's roughly five percent drop has only been bested a handful of times in the last decade on any of the major market indexes. State Street's S&P 500 index ETF (SPY), and Invesco's Nasdaq-100 ETF (QQQ) have both hit this mark no more than five times. Perhaps that's why stocks staged a sucker's rally yesterday, since each previous time it did so was near a short-term swing low. However, this time it might be different.
That's because almost none of the previous occurrences coincided with the kind of pricing shown today in the options of the CBOE's Volatility Index (VIX). The chart below gives a visual representation of the pricing of options on the VIX. Based on the pricing, these ranges represent just over a one-standard-deviation range of probability for each given expiry. What stands out is that the pricing of all of these ranges puts them above 30 for the next six months. Option market makers are basically saying they think that the market is going to remain crazy and generally trend lower for the foreseeable future. The fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJX) slipped into bear market territory only confirmed what they fear.
There is one other possibility, and that is that these prices are simply overdone, the market correction is over, and all will soon return to normal. Seems like a slim chance. More specifically a fifteen percent chance of avoiding a bear market. At least that's the way options were priced today at the close.
Image
Some Target Funds Look Ugly Right Now
If you hate the idea of having to watch charts and look at stocks, you're probably not reading this right now. That simply says you aren't like most people. Most people would rather set their retirement choices up once and walk away and forget them. That's why target funds were invented. You pick a fund that matches your planned-for retirement year (or thereabouts) and simply put all your eggs in that basket. The fund will diversify for you and change that diversification over time.
The chart below shows how a comparison of two such funds (from Vanguard) and compares them with a couple bond-heavy funds. Younger individuals using such a fund and targeting retirement in 2050 probably won't want to look at their portfolio today. It has likely dropped about 15 percent in value over the past two weeks. Retirement hopefuls targeting five years out have had to endure significantly less volatility, but even these kinds of funds have dropped about ten percent recently. By comparison, funds that are 80 percent or even 100 percent composed of bonds are up for the year. That likely sounds attractive, but if you think about the way the bond prices collapsed over the past three days, such funds may have more volatility than desired in the days ahead.
That's why looking at these funds over the course of a full year can help. It's true the drop lately has been precipitous, but over the past year, the 2050 fund has only lost 3.9% and the 2025 fund is nearly unchanged. These amounts can easily be compensated for in any subsequent upward trend of the stock market./

As Boris Johnson explained a week ago:
1. Containment
2. Delay (so that resources will be less stressed)
3. Research
4. Mitigate
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1250211/Coronavirus-UK-plan-what-is-UK-plan-four-phases-Boris-Johnson-speech-in-full
(I was in London watching this on the BBC at the time. Compared to the US, Johnson was very clear, though like the orange one, he kept describing the government's performance as fantastic. At least the UK government wasn't sending out mixed messages.
He also described the possibility of calling up retired NHS workers to help out. And I watched the House of Lords discuss how to assist those required to stay at home, including those on public assistance.)

I see the confusion - terminology. What you call the "retail class" is a fund with two classes, a retail class and an institutional class. The latter (PRAMX) has the same $1M min as the institutional fund's single share class.
The retail fund (including its institutional class) has indeed been around for several years. I always thought of it as a narrow niche product and was somewhat surprised it hung around so long. I believe $100M is large enough for a fund to be viable, albeit not extremely profitable for the management company.
T.Rowe Price was (still is, for now) practically alone in offering an African-focused fund. (M* shows 15 misc. region funds; the only other fund focused on Africa is the $2M CAFRX fund.)
The Templeton fund TFMAX is (was?) a broader fund, with around 2/5 in each of Africa/Middle East and Asian EM countries; the remaining holdings are in Latin America.
Here's a 2015 M* column that suggests a few alternatives:
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/719486/frontier-markets-havent-been-immune

Morningstar today ran an analysis of which funds have the best downside capture ratio during the current panic, which they date as 2/19 - 3/9/2020.
Slightly surprising:
Best: Matthews Asia Growth & Income (MACSX), 69.5%
2. First Eagle Overseas (SGOVX), 70.7%
3. Matthews India (MINDX), 71.4%
4. FPA International Value (FPIVX), 71.6%
5. Matthews Asia Dividend (MAPIX), 74.1%
One almost would have suspected that being at the heart of the storm - i.e., Asia - would have sunk the Matthews folks. Nope.
Best US equity funds?
Royce Special Equity (RYSEX), 63.5%
Yacktman Focused (YAFFX), 69.7%
Yacktman (YACKX), 71.6%
First Eagle US Value (FEVAX), 77.0%
FMI Common Stock (FMMIX), 77.4%
Royce. Hmmm. A lot of cash in the portfolio and an averse to leveraged (i.e., debt ridden) companies helps. The others keep cropped up on our "best of" screens.
As ever,
David