Compared to last week, today’s trading session was relatively quiet. The first few trading days of 2013 were explosive to say the least, as the S&P 500 managed to close at its highest point since December of 2007 last week. But the euphoria was quick to wear off, as a new day brought a new set of problems and a lack of optimism on The Street. The big story of the day was Bank of America (BAC), which reached an agreement to pay $10 billion to Fannie Mae using a combination of cash and mortgage repurchases [see also Seven Simple & Cheap ETF Model Portfolios].
Global Market Overview: Stocks Slide Sideways
It was a relatively slow day, as investors took profits from last week’s massive run with little else happening. Now, traders will have their sights set on February as the new Congress debates the U.S. debt ceiling, a story that will like push and pull at stocks for the next few weeks. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY, A) slipped nearly 0.3% while the Dow Jones ETF (DIA, B) lost 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ETF (QQQ, A-) managed to eek out a 0.03% gain despite another weak trading session for its top component AAPL.
Bond ETF Roundup
The bond market saw a bit more movement today, as investors piled into inflation protected securities, helping (TIP) to jump 0.34%. The only major fixed income fund to lose ground was the juggernaut (AGG) as this product finished the day -0.05%. These funds will be especially crucial to watch in the coming weeks as U.S. debt drama continues to play out.
Commodity Roundup
The physical gold fund (GLD) continued its lackluster performance as of late, dropping 0.6% as the precious metal space continues to exhibit weakness. Soybeans (SOYB) made a strong jump to open the week and it gained about as much as gold lost, as the ag space had a nice comeback after a few days of weakness.
ETF Chart Of The Day #1: (GDX)
As gold continues its weakness, the mining space has been getting hammered. GDX has lost more than 14% in the trailing 13 weeks and has been featuring a beta of -2.19. GDX gapped lower at market open and faced a harsh sell-off as the trading day came to a close, losing 1.9% on the day [see GLD-Free Gold Bug ETFdb Portfolio].
ETF Chart Of The Day #2: (DBA)
Ags had a strong performance to open up the week, allowing the DB Agriculture Fund to benefit from the jump. Soybeans, cocoa, coffee, cotton, corn, and wheat all had positive performances on Monday, allowing DBA to jump 0.7% [see Commodity Guru ETFdb Portfolio].
ETF Fun Fact Of The Day
The first fund launched in 2013 was the iPath S&P MLP ETN (IMLP) which debuted on January 4th.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
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