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 rallying this week.
- Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are up for the week.
- Fed Chair Janet Yellen set a dovish tone on Tuesday, suggesting that the central bank still has more ways to stimulate the economy, including fewer rate hikes and another round of QE.
- The nonfarm employment change was better than expected at 215,000 vs. the expected 206,000. However, the unemployment rate increased to 5% from the previous 4.9%.
- Earlier this week, consumer confidence showed a reading of 96.2, which is better than the expected 93.9 level.
- Saudi Arabia said today that it will only freeze production if other major producers do the same. Deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia said that Iran needs to be one of those producers. As such, the oil production freeze has become very unlikely and is the main reason oil is down this morning.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was up with a gain of 0.94% for the week. This was actually the worst performer for the week out of the bunch below.
- The best performer was the low-volatility ETF (SPLV ) with an increase of 1.28% in value.
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Major Index Review
- Thanks to the dovish tone of central banks this month (the Fed and the ECB), all major indexes are up for the week and rolling month.
- The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) is the worst performer for the week with an increase in value of 0.74%.
- The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM ) is the best performer for the week with a gain of nearly 3%.
- For the rolling one-month, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was the worst performer with a 5.34% gain.
- Emerging-markets performance outpaced all other major indexes; the emerging-markets ETF (EEM ) is up 12.81%.
Foreign Equity Review
- Generally, major foreign tracking ETFs are performing well. The only exceptions are the Brazilian ETF (EWZ ) and Japanese ETF (EWJ ), both of which are down for the week.
- The worst performer for the week and rolling month is the Japan tracking ETF (EWJ ), which is down 0.87% and 3.82%, respectively.
- India (FXI ) has outperformed other foreign equities with a gain of 3.26% for the week.
- Brazil (EWZ ) is the outlier out of the bunch in terms of performance for the rolling month with its gain of 27.67%.
Commodities Review
- The major commodities had mixed performances for the week, but all are up for the rolling month.
- Natural gas (UNG ) has finally started to rally and is the best performer for the week and rolling month with a gain of 4.55% and 10.26%, respectively.
- Oil (USO ) was the worst performer for the week with a loss of 3.10%.
- Gold is up the least for the rolling month, with an increase in price of only 0.04%.
Currency Review
- Now that fewer interest rate hikes are expected from the Fed this year, the U.S. dollar (UUP ) has underperformed other major currencies and is down 1.29% for the week and 3.88% rolling month.
- The best performer for the week is the euro (FXE ), which is up 1.59%.
- The Australian dollar (FXA ) is the best performer with a gain of 7.54% for the rolling month.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
