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 in the red for the week.
- All major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are down for the week.
- This morning we’re seeing a further decline partly due to the worse-than-expected nonfarm employment change report, which stated that 160,000 new jobs were added instead of the 200,000 that were expected.
- The ISM Manufacturing PMI was worse than expected when it was reported on Monday, with a reading of 50.8 versus the 51.5 consensus. The ISM Nonmanufacturing PMI reported on Wednesday had a much better reading of 55.7 versus the 54.7 consensus. These readings are showing a pattern of slower-than-expected expansion in manufacturing industries and increased expansion in nonmanufacturing industries.
- Vehicle sales reported on Tuesday were in line with expectations at 17.4 million versus the expected 17.3 million.
- ECB President Mario Draghi spoke at Asian Development Bank’s 49th Annual Meeting in Frankfurt on Monday. He explained the underlying global financial issues that have to do with low interest rates and insisted that low rates are a symptom, not the problem. The real problem is “insufficient investment demand, across the world, to absorb all the savings available in the economy.” To read the full speech, click here.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) continued trending down this week with a 0.85% decrease.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) is down the most with a decline of 5.38% for the week.
- The low-volatility ETF (SPLV ) was the only ETF that was up for the week with a 1.18% increase.
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Major Index Review
- All major index ETFs are down for the week and rolling month except the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ), which is up 0.92% for the month.
- The Emerging-Markets ETF (EEM ) is the worst performer for the week with a 4.82% decrease.
- The ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index (QQQ ) is the worst performer for the rolling month with a 4.8% drop. Its poor performance is mainly due to poor earnings by major tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL).
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA ) decreased the least this week at -0.54%.
Foreign Equity Review
- All major foreign tracking ETFs are down for the week; Brazil (EWZ ) declined the most at -7.19%.
- However, Brazil (EWZ ) is also the best performer for the rolling month with a 5.1% gain. All of this volatility is mainly due to the uncertain political situation in Brazil.
- The ETF with the smallest decrease for the week is the Japanese ETF (EWJ ), which is down 0.09%.
- For the rolling month, China (FXI ) is showing the most weakness; the ETF decreased 3.81%.
Commodities Review
- All commodities are down for the week.
- Copper (JJC ) is the worst performer this week and rolling month with a decrease of 6.61% and 1.24%, respectively.
- Gold (GLD ) decreased the least, at -0.29%. During these uncertain times, investing in gold might be a good idea since this commodity has low correlation with the overall market.
- For the month, oil (USO ) is back in the green with a huge increase of 16.95%.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is up this week and is the best performer with an increase of 0.7%.
- The Australian dollar (FXA ) is the worst performer for the week and rolling month with losses of 2.24% and 2.25%, respectively.
- The best performer for the rolling month is the Japanese yen (FXY ), which is up 3.84%.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
