Our Investment Portfolios Continue to Deliver Exceptional Returns at the End of June 2026 Despite a Volatile Spring

Market Commentary – End of June 2026

Despite the geopolitical tensions surrounding the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel, global equity markets posted a record-breaking quarter. Wall Street ended the second quarter of 2026 with the S&P 500 up 15% and the Nasdaq up 21%—its strongest quarterly performance since 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 13%, marking its best quarter since 2022 and closing June at a new all-time high.

This once again confirms that news headlines often represent little more than background noise for investors, while long-term market growth is ultimately driven by corporate earnings.

During the first quarter of 2026, companies in the S&P 500 reported year-over-year earnings growth of more than 28% (Source: FactSet), the strongest growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2021. Earnings are expected to grow by more than 23% in the second quarter.

This earnings growth remains highly concentrated. Information Technology and Communication Services have been the primary drivers, with a handful of companies making a disproportionately large contribution.

In some cases, expectations may have become overly optimistic. However, it is also reasonable to expect that the benefits of artificial intelligence adoption will gradually spread across other sectors, improving productivity and profit margins.

Higher oil prices pushed inflation even further above central banks’ 2% target. Inflation exceeded 4% in the United States and reached 2.8% in Europe.

Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, oil prices returned to pre-conflict levels, helping moderate inflation expectations. Oil prices have a direct influence on future inflation forecasts.

As a result, further interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank—which until recently seemed almost certain—are now considered less likely. Meanwhile, the policy direction of the new Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh, appointed by the Trump administration with an explicit mandate to lower interest rates, remains uncertain. He now faces a different macroeconomic environment and a Federal Open Market Committee that appears reluctant to ease monetary policy. With oil prices back under control, the Fed is likely to leave interest rates unchanged throughout the summer.

Gold, on the other hand, has underperformed. After gaining nearly 25% earlier this year, it has now declined by around 4%. Rising rate expectations, a stronger US dollar and previously excessive investor optimism have all weighed on the precious metal. Nevertheless, buyers appear to have returned at current levels, partly due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding inflation.

The overall strength of financial markets has translated into exceptional performance across our investment portfolios, as we will show in the following sections.

The Average inbestMe Investor Has Achieved a 93% Cumulative Return (7.1% Annualized) as of June 2026

At inbestMe, the most common investor profile is Profile 7 (out of 10). This “average investor” profile has remained remarkably consistent since the company was founded, making it a representative benchmark for our clients’ investment performance.

As shown in the chart, the average inbestMe investor has generated a 93.1% cumulative return between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2026, outperforming the Mixed Equity category published by Inverco by 63.5 percentage points, as that benchmark returned 29.6% over the same period.

The chart also shows that this investor profile achieved an annualized return (CAGR) of 7.1%, compared with 2.8% for the corresponding Inverco benchmark, representing an outperformance of 4.3 percentage points per year.

These results are highly satisfactory, both in absolute and relative terms, and reflect one of the core reasons why inbestMe was created: helping investors achieve better long-term investment outcomes through highly personalized portfolio management.

We would also like to emphasize that cumulative returns and annualized performance are currently above our long-term expectations. While this confirms the effectiveness of our investment model, it also calls for prudence. Markets do not always deliver such strong returns, and corrections or bear markets are a natural part of investing.

Let us now look in greater detail at the results recorded at the end of June 2026.

To perform this calculation, we weight the number of “investor” clients by profile relative to the total. For this, we consider the different index fund profiles, ranging from 1 to 10. Savings portfolios, target portfolios, and bond portfolios are excluded from the average investor profile calculation.

** The benchmark index for profile 7/10 is the “Mixed Equity” category from Inverco.

Exceptional Performance of inbestMe’s Standard Indexed Fund Portfolios in the First Half of 2026

Despite the volatility experienced throughout the spring of 2026, all of our diversified indexed fund and ETF portfolios posted positive returns by the end of June.

These portfolios are designed for medium- and long-term investors. Their broad diversification across multiple asset classes provides resilience under a wide range of market conditions, and our strategic asset allocation once again proved effective during a particularly challenging six-month period.

As illustrated in the chart, returns for our standard indexed fund portfolios ranged from 1.6% for Profile 1 to 13.3% for Profile 10, with an average return of 6.8% across all risk profiles.

These returns are so remarkable that they could easily represent a very positive full year.

The return for the average investor profile (7/10) was 8.7% as of the end of June 2026, benefiting from the exceptional performance of our portfolios, almost 5 percentage points higher than the benchmark index.

As of the end of June 2026, on average, our portfolios had a return 2.8 percentage points higher than the average weighted return of investment funds in Spain, which was 4% (according to Inverco).

The returns of the ETF version have been very similar. You can see a comparison of these portfolios and the other “thematic” portfolios below.

Comparative Performance of inbestMe’s Investment Portfolios as of the End of June 2026

As of the end of June 2026, and in line with the results described above, all of inbestMe’s investment portfolios designed for medium- and long-term investing (that is, excluding our Savings, Target, Bond Portfolios and Pension Portfolios, which are analysed separately) delivered very positive returns.

The chart summarizes the performance of our investment portfolios during the first half of 2026. The message is clear: every risk profile across every portfolio family closed the semester with positive returns, and performance increased in an orderly manner as the risk profile increased, exactly as would be expected from a well-diversified portfolio with a medium- to long-term investment horizon, although this may not always be the case over shorter periods such as six months.

Our Value ETF Portfolios stood out as the best-performing portfolios of the semester: the average investor (Profile 7) achieved a +11.5% return, while the highest-risk profile (Profile 10) reached an outstanding +20.0%.

They were closely followed by our Indexed Fund Portfolios and ETF Portfolios, with returns for the average investor (Profile 7) of around 9%, exceeding 13% for the highest-risk profiles.

At this point, it is worth highlighting the strong relative performance of sustainable investing. Unlike in 2024 and 2025, when our ESG portfolios lagged behind, this semester they delivered similar or even slightly better results. In fact, the average profile of our ESG Indexed Fund Portfolios (+9.3%) was the best-performing across our entire indexed fund range, outperforming the equivalent standard portfolios (+8.7%). The same was true for our ESG ETF Portfolios (+8.8%) compared with the standard ETF portfolios (+7.8%).

Our K Portfolios also delivered very strong returns: Profile 10 reached +10.7%, while Profile 8 (the representative investor profile for this portfolio family) achieved +9.3%. For the first time at inbestMe, you can consult a dedicated report on these portfolios prepared by Project K.

Our USD Portfolios (+8.6% for Profile 7, measured in USD) complete a strong and consistent picture, rising to +12.7% for Profile 10.

Once again, the underlying message remains the same: what matters is not identifying the winning asset, but selecting the risk profile that best matches each investor’s financial situation, objectives and needs, and staying invested.

You can find more details in our dedicated posts covering the following portfolios:

• Excellent Returns from inbestMe’s Value ETF Portfolios
• inbestMe’s USD ETF Portfolios Have Accumulated Returns of up to 168% as of the End of June 2026
• Excellent Returns from the K Portfolios
• inbestMe Pension Portfolios Continue to Deliver Excellent Returns as of the End of June 2026 Despite a Volatile Spring
• inbestMe’s Conservative Portfolios Continue to Fulfil Their Objective Despite Slightly Higher Volatility in 2026
• SRI portfolios outperform standard portfolios in the first half of 2026

You can also view all the returns of our portfolios and compare them with one another on our dedicated Returns page.

Cumulative Returns Since Inception Remain Above Expectations as of the End of June 2026

Our diversified indexed fund and ETF investment portfolios are designed for medium- and long-term investing, and it is over these time horizons that they should be properly evaluated.

The chart below compares all of our portfolio risk profiles (bright blue bars) with the corresponding categories published by Inverco for Spanish investment funds (light blue bars), covering the period from 2017 through the end of June 2026. This allows us to compare our portfolios with investment funds investing in the same asset classes and with similar risk profiles.

The cumulative return of our portfolios ranges from 13.9% for Profile 1 to 146.4% for Profile 10.

Across all profiles, our portfolios have generated an average cumulative return of 73.6%, outperforming the 34.1% average return of the comparable Inverco categories by 39.5 percentage points.

As mentioned above, the average inbestMe investor (Profile 7) has accumulated a return of 93.1%, compared with 29.6% for its benchmark category.

In practical terms, this means that an investment of €100,000 would have grown to €193,100 in the average inbestMe investor portfolio, compared with €129,600 had it been invested in the benchmark category—representing an additional gain of €63,500.

Profiles 8 (112.2%), 9 (130.9%), and 10 (146.4%) have all comfortably exceeded a 100% cumulative return.

On average, therefore, our portfolios have delivered an annualized return (CAGR) of 5.6%, compared with 2.6% for the comparable Inverco categories—an outperformance of 3.0 percentage points, or more than double the benchmark return.

It is particularly noteworthy that every one of our portfolio categories has outperformed its respective benchmark. This outperformance is especially significant in Profiles 6 to 9, where the majority of our clients are invested, with annualized outperformance ranging from 3.0 to 5.3 percentage points.

The differences in the lower-risk profiles are also significant in relative terms, with returns reaching three to five times those of the corresponding benchmark categories.

As highlighted earlier, the average investor profile (Profile 7) has accumulated a 93.1% cumulative return and an annualized return (CAGR) of 7.1%, 4.3 percentage points higher than its benchmark.

It is worth noting that, at present and in general, both cumulative returns and the annualized return (CAGR) are above our expected long-term returns.

While this confirms the efficiency of our investment model, it also prompts us to convey a message of prudence: we should avoid euphoria, as market corrections and bear markets are a natural part of the investment process and will inevitably return at some point.

It is essential to be prepared for this possibility and to carefully assess the appropriate risk profile for each portfolio, taking this into account, just as we show during our onboarding process, where we provide a graphical illustration of the range of possible outcomes and the potential drawdowns associated with each risk profile.