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 continued their rally this week.
- Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are up for the week.
- There was no consensus on an oil production freeze during the oil meeting in Doha this past Sunday due to Iran’s absence from the meeting. As such, the oil production surplus will continue in the markets.
- The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index reported yesterday came in worse than expected; the figure stood at -1.6 versus the consensus of 9.
- Earnings season is underway. While earnings seemed to have started on a good note, we are now seeing some weakness as evident by several large companies missing expectations last night, including tech giants Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT).
- During the ECB press conference on Thursday, rates remained steady. Although, President Draghi said that rates will remain at current levels or decrease further for a long time to come.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was up 0.46% this week.
Major Index Review
- Most major indexes are up for the week with the exception of the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ ), which is down 0.16%.
- The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) outperformed other major index ETFs this week and for the rolling month, with a 1.92% and 3.75% increase, respectively.
- For the rolling month, the worst performer was the emerging-markets ETF (EEM ), which is up 2.24%.
Foreign Equity Review
- Major foreign tracking ETFs are showing mixes results this week.
- Brazil’s (EWZ ) performance was the least impressive with a 1.06% decrease for the week.
- The best-performing ETF out of the bunch is the German tracking ETF (EWG ), which is up 3.09% this week.
- Japan (EWJ ) is the best performer for the rolling month with a 5.85% increase.
- India (FXI ) is showing weakness at only a modest 2.22% increase for the rolling month. However, reforms are in progress in the country and it has great potential on the upside from a long-term perspective.
Commodities Review
- Commodities are seeing some strength as all major commodities are up for the week.
- Natural gas (UNG ) has seen the most upside this week with a 9.88% increase in value.
- Gold (GLD ) has increased the least this week with a 1.78% gain.
- For the rolling month, silver (SLV ) has started to catch up to gold in terms of performance and is up 7.71% for the rolling month. Silver has also been trending this week and silver miners have seen insane YTD performance. Read more on this in our trends article.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is modestly down this week with a loss of 0.20%. It’s also the worst performer for the rolling month with a 0.65% loss.
- The British pound is seeing some strength this week with a 1.01% increase.
- The Japanese yen (FXY ) remains the top performer for the rolling month with a 2.07% gain. However, the ETF lost 0.44% this week, making it the worst performer for the week.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
