To help investors keep up with the markets, we present our ETF Scorecard. The Scorecard takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing.
As a side note, the weekly performance is from the last Friday’s open to this week’s Thursday close.
This week, U.S. equities have remained fairly steady with a slight increase in value by Thursday’s close. Core retail sales (without the largest auto sales sector) growth was reported on Wednesday and was worse than expected for the month at -0.3%; the expected figure was -0.1%. This had a negative effect on the equity market on Wednesday. Jobless claims came in better than expected on Thursday at 255K vs the consensus of 269K, hence the reason stocks went up yesterday. Core CPI (that’s without food and energy prices) numbers were also better that expected at 0.2% growth for the month vs. 0.1% consensus.
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Risk Appetite Review
U.S. equity markets closed off well on Thursday. There was a slight increase in value in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) since last Friday, and it was the best performer of the below ETFs. The High Beta ETF (SPHB ) was the “worst” performer of the bunch.
Major Index Review
Across the board, major global indexes were up for the week, with the exception of the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM ) that decreased slightly by 0.13%. The Nasdaq-100 ETF (QQQ ) was the “best” performer. On the rolling month, almost every major index has rallied, with only the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM ) lagging behind at a negative 0.33% return. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ) is the best performer for the rolling month at a 5.66% gain.
Foreign Equity Review
Single country ETFs performed well this week as well, with the exception of Brazil (EWZ ) that declined by 5.11%. The Russian ETF (RSX ) is in the lead this week. Overall, good performance for foreign equities in the past week and month. Over the trailing one-month period, only the German (EWG ) and the Brazilian (EWZ ) ETFs ended in the red.
Commodities Review
Metal commodities have performed well for the week. With Gold (GLD ) in the lead at a growth of 2.49%. Oil (USO ) was the “worst” performer for the week. Natural gas (UNG ) continues to be the “worst” performer for the rolling month at a loss of 11.01%. The only other commodity in the red for the rolling month is copper (JJC ), at a 0.42% loss.
Currency Review
The U.S. dollar (UUP ) continues to fall and is at a 0.49% loss for the week. It’s the “worst” performer for the trailing 1-month period at a 1.20% decline. The Japanese Yen (FXY ) is the top performer for the week, at a 1.15% gain. Wisdomtree emerging currency fund (CEW ) is the top performer for the trailing 1-month period with a gain of 3.24%.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
