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 Thursday’s close.
- U.S. markets are flat for the week.
- Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are down for the week.
- U.S. retail sales data disappointed the markets. December retail sales fell 0.1%, which was below expectations of flat sales.
- December housing starts disappointed as well. Housing starts of 1.149 million missed expectations of 1.2 million.
- The Consumer Price Index fell 0.1% in December, signaling deflationary concerns.
- China’s GDP growth of 6.8% last quarter missed economists’ average consensus of 6.9% GDP growth.
- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi spoke at a press conference and struck a dovish tone on monetary policy, saying he expects rates to remain at or below present levels for an extended period of time.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was flat with a -0.04% change for the week.
- The equal weight ETF (RSP ) gained slightly on the week with a 0.26% increase.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) was the worst performer of the group with no change.
Major Index Review
- All major indexes were flat for the week.
- The PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, was the best performer for the week with a gain of 0.28%.
- The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) was the worst performer for the week with a 1.01% loss.
- The Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ) was the worst performer for the rolling month with a 12.63% loss.
Foreign Equity Review
- Most major foreign tracking ETFs were down for the week. All major foreign markets are down for the month.
- The Brazilian ETF (EWZ ) was the worst performer for the week and rolling month with losses of 5.04% and 18.83%, respectively.
- The German ETF (EWG ) was the best performer for the week with a gain of 0.25%.
Commodities Review
- Most commodities were flat for the week. Among the top performers was Copper (JJC ), up 2.55%.
- Natural gas (UNG ) was up 10.92% for the month, making it the best performer for the month.
- Oil (USO ) was the worst performer for the week and rolling month with losses of 2.62% and 19.25%, respectively.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) did not fluctuate much over the week and rolling month with it’s gain of 0.55% and 0.43%, respectively.
- Among the best performers for the week was the Australian dollar (FXA ), which was up 1.87%.
- The best performer for the rolling month was the Japanese yen (FXY ), up 3.09%.
- The British pound (FXB ) was the worst performer for the week and rolling month, down 0.89% and 4.62%, respectively.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
