Investors went along for a downhill ride last week as debt woes plagued Wall Street, sending the S&P 500 lower by nearly 4% for the week. Corporate earnings were mostly surprises to the upside, but equities failed to stage a meaningful comeback since investors were more concerned with the debt ceiling drama at home. As expected, gold continued its march higher, with futures prices hitting an all-time high of $1,637 an ounce on Friday morning. Our trade recommendations for this week include a defensive position in a domestic sector fund as well as an international fixed-income ETF, while our bullish pick stands to benefit from a rebound in foreign equities.
Weekly Outlook
The coming week is stacked with central bank meetings around the globe, including a key interest rate decision by the European Central Bank which will be watched by many given the deteriorating financial health of the Euro zone. Investors will be kept busy at home as well, with several important economic data releases hitting the street, including manufacturing data, consumer spending, and the unemployment rate on Friday. Below we highlight ETFs that may see an increase in trading activity as relevant market data is released and evaluated by investors:
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Debt worries crushed American equities once again in Tuesday trading as all three of the major benchmarks started the day in the red and failed to come back into the green to close out the session. The Dow led on the downside falling by 0.7% while the S&P 500 fell by 0.4% and the Nasdaq [...]
Wall Street regained some lost ground last week as investors appeared less fearful to jump back into the equity markets. Corporate earnings were mostly upbeat, although several big financial institutions missed estimates while Apple and Google both blew past analyst predictions. Emerging market equity indexes also ended the week in green territory. Gold took a [...]
American equity markets were mixed to close out the week as earnings and a debt deal in Greece weighed on stocks. The Dow finished the day lower by 0.3%, dragged down by a weak report from CAT, while the S&P 500 (up 0.1%), and the Nasdaq (up 0.9%), both finished in the green for the [...]
American equity markets continued their run in Thursday trading as a solid Chicago PMI and declining jobless claims helped markets to end the quarter on a strong note. The Dow rose by 1.3% in the session, leading the broader indexes as the Nasdaq rose by 1.2% and the S&P 500 gained 1.0%. Commodities were more [...]
Due to weak economic data and a poor stock market, investors are growing increasingly concerned over the American economic situation. Initial jobless claims remain well above 400,000 a week while the latest ISM Manufacturing Index survey showed that the production corner of the economy may be slowing down as well. Despite this rash of bad news, stocks [...]
Sector rotation techniques have been around for decades, a relatively simple strategy often used by investors seeking to capitalize on short-term mispricings in order to generate alpha. In its most basic form, sector rotation involves segmenting the equity universe by industry, and moving into and out of various sectors depending on relative attractiveness from a [...]
Equities across the globe continued their sluggish performance for most of last week, and while broad indexes managed to climb into positive territory the last few trading sessions, the week as a whole was fairly turbulent with no real movement in either direction. Gold climbed higher amidst uncertainty in the financial markets, closing the week [...]
U.S. equities finished the week pretty much flat as losses in Monday and Tuesday trading were soon erased by solid performances out of the blue chips later in the week to push the S&P 500 back to roughly breakeven for the five day period. International markets didn’t fare much better on the week, and in [...]
Weekly Recap Last week proved to be quite bumpy for investors, as asset classes from stocks to commodities–and everything in between–swayed between gains and losses for the last several trading days on Wall Street. Volatility was abundant across all markets and domestic equity indexes ended the week relatively flat, much like crude oil and silver [...]
Investors cheered solid earnings reports from a variety of sectors, helping to push all of the major indexes sharply higher on the day. The Dow led the way with a 115 point gain, or about 0.95% and was closely trailed by the S&P which added 0.9% on its total, meanwhile, the Nasdaq also has a [...]
