Following a very strong finish last week, the bulls managed to stick around on Wall Street over the past five trading days. The FOMC statement took center stage, which again served as a reminder that policymakers will remain accommodative in light of persistently sluggish growth and low inflation. On the data release front, investors cheered on better-than-expected GDP while worse-than-expected durable goods orders from earlier in the week failed to inspire profit taking pressures [see also Global X Debuts Two JPMorgan ETFs].
To help investors keep up with markets, we present our ETF Scorecard, which takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing. For most of the return comparisons below, we reference trailing 1-week and trailing 1-month returns; this offers a good insight into the prevailing sentiment in the markets by capturing the performances across short-term and longer-term time intervals [for more ETF news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].
Risk Appetite Review
“Risk on” appetites persisted for a second week in a row as evidenced by High Beta stock taking the lead once again:
Major Index Review
U.S. small caps led the rebound among the major indexes while Developed Markets were the biggest laggard in green:
Domestic Sector Review
The Healthcare sector posted the strongest returns for a second week in a row while Materials was the biggest laggard in red:
Sector Valuations
Sector valuations improved across the board with the exception of Materials:
Foreign Equity Review
On the international front, Brazil and Russia posted the biggest gains by a wide margin for the week:
Regional Valuations
Regional P/Es increased across the board in light of the global market rally over the past week:
Alternatives Review
Commodities
Natural gas was the bigger winner for the week while gold and silver prices declined after the Fed reiterated that inflation is still low:
Currencies
On the currency front, the Aussie dollar was the biggest winner while the Japanese yen turned in the worst performance for a second week in a row:
*All data as of market close 10/30/2014.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
