ETF Scorecard - December 4 Edition

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 in the red for the week.

Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are down for the week.

Janet Yellen testified about monetary policy this Thursday. The tone was hawkish, as she feels the U.S. economy is ready for a rate hike.

The leading economic indicator, ISM Manufacturing PMI, had a disappointing figure of 48.6 vs. the consensus of 50.6 on Tuesday’s release.

ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI released on Thursday this week also fell short of expectations. The reading stood at 55.9 vs. the consensus of 58.1.

The IMF approved China’s renminbi as a global reserve currency this week. We wrote about the potential effects this will have on the Chinese economy and how to get exposure here.

Mario Draghi, the chief of the ECB, announced the extension of the 60-billion-euro-a-month bond-buying program until March 2017 instead of September 2016, but the ECB did not increase the amounts of these purchases. The markets did not take this well.

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Risk Appetite Review

The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY A) was slightly down at a 0.43% decrease.

The equal weight ETF (RSP B+) was the worst performer out of the bunch, with a 0.52% loss for the week.

The high-beta ETF (SPHB B-) is down the least, with a decline of 0.35% for the week.

Major Index Review

All major indexes are down for the week, except the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ A-), which is up a modest 0.05%.

The Emerging Markets ETF (EEM A-) is the worst performer for the week and the rolling month, with a 1.17% and 4.57% loss, respectively.

The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM B+) is the best performer for the rolling month, with a 0.86% gain.

Foreign Equity Review

All major foreign tracking ETFs are down for the week, except the Chinese ETF (FXI A-), which is up 0.84%.

The only ETF that is in the green for the rolling month is the Japanese ETF (EWJ A), with a gain of 0.73%.

The Russian ETF (RSX B+) is the worst performer for the week and rolling month, with a 5.20% and 6.68% loss, respectively.

Commodities Review

All commodities are down for the week and rolling month, with the exception being silver (SLV C+), which had no change for the week.

Oil (USO A) is the worst performer for the week and rolling month, with a loss of 4.66% and 17.02%, respectively.

The agriculture ETF (DBA A) is the one that decreased the least for the rolling month, with a loss of 2.88%.

Currency Review

The U.S. dollar (UUP A) is down slightly for the week, with a loss of 0.19%. Although, it still is the top performer for the rolling month, with a gain of 2.72%.

The Australian dollar (DBA A) is the best performer for the week, with a gain of 1.52%.

The worst performer for the rolling month is the euro (FXE A), which is down 3.23%. However, it did gain 0.34% this week because of the ECB announcement discussed earlier.