ETF Scorecard: March 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 Thursday’s close.

This week, the rally in the markets continued.

The volatility index, VIX, is at its lowest level since December of last year.

This morning, the nonfarm employment change figure came in better than expected; 242,000 new jobs were added in February versus the forecast of 190,000. However, average hourly earnings decreased 0.1% versus the consensus of an increase of 0.2%. The unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.9%.

The ISM manufacturing PMI figure released on Tuesday was better than expected at 49.5 versus the consensus of 48.5.

The ISM nonmanufacturing PMI was slightly better than expected on Thursday at 53.4 versus the consensus of 53.1.

Crude oil inventory levels released on Wednesday were much higher than expected at 10.4 million barrels versus the expected of 2.5 million. This is a bearish sign for oil prices since there’s still too much supply in the markets.

China’s manufacturing PMI released on Monday came in worse than expected at 49 versus the consensus of 49.4. This leading indicator is showing that China is slowing down in terms of economic growth.

Last Friday marked the start of the G20 meetings in China.

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Risk Appetite Review

The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY A) benchmark was up by 1.63% for the week.

This time, the high-beta ETF (SPHB B-) outperformed the others in the table below, with a gain of 7.80% for the week.

The low-volatility ETF (SPLV A) was the worst performer and is up only 0.08% this week.

Major Index Review

Major indexes are up for the week and for the rolling month.

Emerging markets (EEM A-) have outperformed the other major indexes for the rolling month and week with gains of 8.68% and 5.30%, respectively.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA A-) is up the least for the week with a 0.90% increase.

Given that generally the technology sector underperforms during market uncertainty, the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ A-) was the worst performer for the month with its gain of 2.75%. Speaking of QQQ, we recently released the first article written by an artificial intelligence on ETFdb about this ETF.

Foreign Equity Review

All major foreign equities performed well for the rolling month and week.

Brazil (EWZ B+) continues its rally this week; the ETF is by far the best performer with a gain of 15.24% for the week and 22.81% for the rolling month.

Japan (EWJ A) is the worst performer out of the bunch with a gain of just 2.24% for the week and 1.33% for the rolling month.

Commodities Review

The only commodity that is performing terribly is natural gas. (UNG B-) is down 8.10% for the week and 21.85% for the rolling month. Low demand due to the warm winter keeps this commodity plunging lower.

Precious metals are the best performers this week and rolling month, led by gold (GLD A-) for the rolling month with a gain of 11.88%. Copper (JJC A) outperformed for the week with a gain of 3.36%.

Another noteworthy performer is oil (USO A), which has stopped dropping to lower levels in the last few weeks. It’s now up 1.20% for the week and 4.64% for the rolling month. This is a big part of the reason that markets are performing well this week and rolling month.

Currency Review

The USD (UUP A) is the worst performer for the week with a loss of 0.24%.

There’s a clear distinction for the week in terms of currency performance. The USD (UUP A), euro (FXE A), and Japanese yen (FXY C+) are underperforming for the week with similar performances. The British pound (FXB A-), Aussie (FXA A-), and emerging-market currencies (CEW A) are up this week by about the same amount.

For the rolling month, the British pound (FXB A-) is the worst performer with a loss of 2.51%. This is mainly due to Brexit fears and a slowing British economy.