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.
- Last week, the employment report came in at 242,000 versus the consensus of 190,000. The unemployment rate stands at 4.9%. Concerns remain regarding inflation since average hourly earnings came in at -0.1%.
- The Fed’s ability to stay on its normalization path has been put to question, given the fall in commodity prices, volatility in global equities, and fears of an economic slowdown around the world. The probability of a rate hike in November is at 49%, according to the CME group’s FedWatch Tool.
- The ECB announced a higher-than-expected increase in the ECB’s bond-buying program from €60 billion ($66.96 billion) to €80 billion ($89.28 billion) a month. The ECB also cut its deposit rate by 0.1% to -0.4%, in line with expectations.
- Hedge funds and other currency speculators added $1.6 billion to long dollar positions via currency futures last week, suggesting that the U.S. dollar will rise against its main rivals,
- Oil markets continue to rally on big expectations of production freezes during the late-March meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC countries; expectations are that volatility will arise in the weeks ahead.
- Emerging-market equity funds took in $2.3 billion this week, one of the biggest inflows since 2014.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was slightly down, with a 0.23% decrease.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) was the worst performer out of the bunch, with a 1.56% loss for the week.
- The low-volatility ETF (SPLV ) is the best performer, with an increase of 0.54% for the week.
Major Index Review
- Most major indexes are down for the week except the Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA ), which is up a modest 0.31%.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA ) is the worst performer for the rolling month, with a 5.64% gain.
- The emerging-markets ETF (EEM ) is the best performer for the rolling month, with a 9.96% gain.
Foreign Equity Review
- Some of the major foreign tracking ETFs are down for the week, with the Japanese ETF (EWJ ) experiencing the biggest loss of 2.77%.
- The biggest green for the rolling month is the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (EWZ ) with a gain of 32.30%.
- The German ETF (EWG ) is the worst performer for the rolling month with a 4.35% gain.
Commodities Review
- All commodities are up for the week with the exception of copper (JJC ), which had a loss of 0.62%.
- The biggest winners in the commodity asset class this week are oil (USO ) and natural gas (UNG ) with a gain of 8.07% and 10.50%, respectively.
- The natural gas ETF (UNG ) is the only loser for the rolling month, with a loss of 15.19%.
Currency Review
- The clear winner this week is the euro (FXE ) with a gain of 1.84%. The U.S. dollar (UUP ) was the clear loser this week with 1.30%.
- The Australian dollar (FXA ) is the best performer for the rolling month with a gain of 5.30%.
- The worst performer for the rolling month is the British pound (FXB ), which is down 1.47%.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
