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. The weekly performance is from last Friday’s open to this week’s Thursday close.
- U.S. markets are down for the week.
- All major indices, foreign equities and commodities are down for the week
- The non-farm employment change reported last Friday was better than expected, with 271,000 newly employed people in the market vs. the consensus of 181,000. This didn’t help the market, since now investors are more concerned about the real possibility of a rate hike by the Fed in December.
- Although the general consensus is the Fed will raise rates, there’s still uncertainty, which is causing volatility in the markets. New York Federal Reserve President Bill Dudley said he’s concerned about low inflation and that “the economy is growing only slightly at an above-trend pace.” To add to this uncertainty, investors are unsure of the implications of a rate hike on the markets.
- Unemployment claims released on Thursday were worse than expected at 276,000 vs. the expected figure of 270,000.
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Risk Appetite Review
- U.S. equity markets are in decline for the week, with all the major S&P 500 ETFs in the red.
- The overall market, as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ), was down by 2.34%.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) was the worst performer out of the bunch, with a 4.30% loss for the week.
Major Index Review
- Across the board, major global indexes were down for the week.
- The Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ) was the worst performer for the week and rolling month, with an 2.86% and 3.52% loss, respectively.
- The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ ) is the best performer for the rolling month, with a 5.52% gain.
Foreign Equity Review
- Overall, foreign equities are down for the week, except for the Japanese ETF (EWJ ), which had no change in price.
- The Russian ETF (RSX ) is the worst performer for the week, with a 5.36% loss.
- The Indian ETF (EPI ) is the worst performer for the rolling month, with a 5.15% loss.
Commodities Review
- Commodities just can’t catch a break since all major commodity ETFs are down for the week and rolling month.
- Gold (GLD ) has seen the least loss in the commodity space for the week, with just a 0.31% loss.
- The DB Agricultural Fund (DBA ) has lost 3.33%, which is the smallest loss out of the bunch, for the rolling month.
- The worst performer for the week is oil (USO ), with a 6.58% loss.
- The worst performer for the rolling month is natural gas (UNG ), with a 16.71% loss.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is down for the week, and is the worst performer, with a 0.62% loss. Although, it remains the best performer for the rolling month, with a 3.93% gain.
- The British pound (FXB ) is the best performer for the week, with a 1.15% gain.
- The worst performer for the rolling month is the Euro (FXE ), with 5.09% loss.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
