News
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 last Friday’s open to this week’s Thursday close.
- The last couple of days were volatile, but overall U.S. equities continued their rally this week.
- Earnings are still in the spotlight, with Facebook and Ralph Lauren Corp. beating expectations. These good earnings this week are partly why stocks rallied.
- The ADP Non-Farm Employment Change report released on Wednesday shows a slow down in the number of newly employed people during the previous month. The figure is at 182,000 new employees vs. the revised and lowered forecast consensus of 183,000.
- Unemployment claims released Thursday were more than expected at 276,000 vs. the expected figure of 263,000.
- Most emerging markets have enjoyed the rally this week as well.
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Risk Appetite Review
- U.S. equity markets closed off well for the week.
- The overall market, as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ), was up 0.52%.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) was the best performer out of the bunch, with a 1.95% gain.
- The only ETF in the red out of the below list was the low-beta ETF (SPLV ) which lost 0.18% for the week.
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Major Index Review
- Across the board, major global indexes were up for the week, with the exception of the MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) which decreased by 0.07%.
- The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM ) was the best performer for the week, with a 2.44% gain.
- The NASDAQ-100 ETF (QQQ ) was the best performer for the rolling month, with an 8.99% gain.
Foreign Equity Review
- No real overall trend to foreign equities this week since some did well and others did not.
- Most notably, Brazil (EWZ ) rallied by 7.19% this week. This was the best performer of the major foreign equities.
- The worst performer was the Indian ETF (EPI ), with a loss of 1.42% and 2.44% for the week and month, respectively.
- The best performing foreign equity ETF for the rolling month was the Russian ETF (RSX ), with a 7.50% gain.
Commodities Review
- All major commodity ETFs are down for the week, except the natural gas ETF (UNG ), with a gain of 6.94%.
- Although natural gas (UNG ) was up in the recent week, it’s still the worst performer for the rolling month, with an 11.02% loss.
- All major commodities are down for the rolling month.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) has continued its rally and is the best performer for the week and month, with a gain of 1.11% and 2.08%, respectively.
- The euro (FXE ) is in the spotlight as it’s the worst performer for the week and month, with a loss of 1.43% and 3.12%, respectively.
- All other foreign currencies are relatively stable compared to the euro and U.S. dollar.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
