The final tallies are in.
The best-performing major asset class in the first quarter of 2014 was the agricultural commodity complex (proxied here by the Rogers International Commodity Agriculture Total Return Index), up 12.4%.
Treasuries (proxied by the TLT ETF) and gold each advanced more than 7%, while emerging-market sovereign debt (proxied by JPMorgan's Emerging Markets Bond Total Return Index) and West Texas Intermediate crude oil each returned a little more than 3%.
European stocks, U.S. stocks, the euro, and the British pound all eked out gains, while emerging-market stocks (proxied by MSCI's EM index), the dollar-yen exchange rate, Chinese stocks, and Japanese stocks all lost ground.
The chart below compares returns:
Business Insider/Matthew Boesler (data from Bloomberg)