• U.S. markets are flat for the week.

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

• The ISM nonmanufacturing PMI showed improvement; on Tuesday, the figure came in at 54.5 compared to the expected 54.1.

• There has been quite a bit of oil news recently. Crude oil is up this week for several reasons: crude oil inventories decreased (-4.9 million vs. the expected 3.1 million); there is an increased projection for oil demand in the U.S. and Germany; during the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting on April 17 an agreement to freeze production is expected; and Russia’s oil production is expected to decrease in April.

• The FOMC meeting minutes released on Wednesday signaled that global growth is slowing down and that the Fed will be very cautious with rate increases this year. A rate hike before June is now very unlikely.

• BoJ Governor Kuroda spoke on Wednesday, signaling that the BoJ will keep its QE and negative interest rates for as long as necessary in order to bring inflation back up to the 2% mark. Kuroda also stated that that the BoJ will take additional monetary policy easing steps if needed.

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• The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY A) was slightly down at a 0.20% decrease. It also happens to be the best performer for the week.

• The high-beta ETF (SPHB B-) is the worst performer, down 1.27%.

• Major indexes are mixed for the week.

• The emerging-markets ETF (EEM A-) is the outlier in the group, with a loss of 2.12% over the last week.

• The best performer for the week and rolling month is the PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ A-), up 0.46% and 3.77%, respectively. The artificial intelligence Emma has given insight on this ETF in her article, Artificial Intelligence Analyzes QQQ.

• The iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF (EFA A) is the worst performer for the rolling month with a decrease of 0.68%.

• Most foreign markets are down for the week except Russia (RSX B+), which is up 0.69%.

• Russia (RSX B+) is also the best performer for the rolling month with a 2.10% gain.

• Brazil (EWZ B+) is the worst performer for the week with a decrease of 3.89%.

• The worst performer for the rolling month is Japan (EWJ A), which is down 3%.

• Commodities are showing mixed performance for the week and rolling month.

• Copper (JJC A) is in a down trend and is the worst performer for the week and rolling month with a loss of 4.80% and 9.64%, respectively.

• Natural gas (UNG B-) is the best performer for the week and rolling month with gains of 3.47% and 15.91%, respectively.

• The U.S. dollar (UUP A) is down slightly for the week with a loss of 0.28%. It’s the worst performer for the rolling month as well with a 3.24% loss.

• The Japanese yen (FXY C+) is by far the best performer for the week and rolling month with gains of 3.41% and 4.64%, respectively. As mentioned in our weekly trends article, if the yen’s strength persists, Kuroda will be constrained to ease monetary policy further by expanding QE, lowering deposit rates, or both.

• The worst performer for the week is the Australian dollar (FXA A-), which is down 1.60%. This is due to disappointing retail sales that were stagnant month over month with null growth compared to the expected 0.4% increase. Furthermore, on Monday, Australia’s trade balance came in worse than expected at -3.41 billion vs. the expected -2.55 billion.

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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.