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 up for the week.
- Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are in the green for the week. However, markets are down this morning.
- Core retail sales were better than expected last month as reported this morning. Month over month, core retail sales increased 0.8% versus the consensus of 0.5%, which is the highest increase in a year.
- The month-over-month PPI change, as reported this morning, was worse than expected at 0.2% versus the consensus of 0.3%.
- Unemployment claims reported on Thursday were worse than expected at 294,000 claims versus the consensus of 267,000.
- The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 0.50% on Thursday this week.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) rallied 1.23% this week.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) is the worst performer with a decline of 0.14% for the week.
- The low-volatility ETF (SPLV ) was the best performer out of the bunch with a 1.74% gain for the week.
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Major Index Review
- All major indexes are in the green for the week; the PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ ) is in the lead, up 1.32%.
- The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM ) is the worst performer for the week with a slight gain of 0.52%.
- The two outliers for the rolling month are the PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ ) and the Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ), which are both down more than 3% for the month.
- The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) is the best performer for the rolling month with a 1.28% increase.
Foreign Equity Review
- All major foreign tracking ETFs are up for the month with the exception of the Chinese ETF (FXI ), which is down 4.94%.
Commodities Review
- Commodities are showing mixed performance for the week and rolling month.
- All the major metals are down; copper (JJC ) is the worst performer with losses of 3.3% and 1.04% for the week and rolling month, respectively.
- Oil (USO ) continues its rally this week. It’s the best-performing commodity, up 5.92% for the week and 12.37% for the month. Crude oil inventories declined in the U.S. by 3.4 million as reported on Wednesday. This is a bullish sign for crude oil prices.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is up slightly for the week with a 0.45% gain, making it the best-performing major currency, although, it’s completely flat for the rolling month.
- The Japanese yen (FXY ) is the worst performer for the week with a loss of 2.17%.
- The worst performer for the rolling month is the Australian dollar (FXA ), which is down 3.37%.
- The British pound (FXB ) has been doing well lately; it is the best performer for the rolling month with a 1.45% gain.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
