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’s Thursday close.
- U.S. markets are down for the week.
- Most major foreign markets, including developed and emerging markets, are in the red this week.
- During the FOMC meeting minutes this Wednesday the tone was more hawkish than expected. The Fed implied that a rate hike was a real possibility this coming June. This pushed markets down and the U.S. dollar higher.
- The leading economic indicator, the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, had a disappointing figure of -1.8 vs. the expected 3.0 on Thursday’s release. A reading below 0.0 indicates worsening economic conditions in Philadelphia.
- The preliminary UoM Consumer Sentiment figure was better than expected, as reported last Friday. The figure stood at 95.8 vs. the consensus of 89.7.
- U.S. crude oil inventories increased 1.3 million barrels, which was more than the expected decrease of 3.1 million barrels.
- The G7 meetings have began on Thursday this week in Sendai, Japan. The countries in the G7 are the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K.
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Risk Appetite Review
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was down with a nearly 1% drop this week.
- The low volatility ETF (SPLV ) was the worst performer out of the bunch, with a 2.18% loss for the week.
- The high-beta ETF (SPHB ) is the only one in the green out of the group, with a 0.76% increase.
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Major Index Review
- All major indexes are down for the week and rolling month.
- The Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ) is the worst performer for the week and the rolling month, with a 2.12% and 9.07% loss, respectively.
- The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA ) decreased the least this week, with only a 0.47% drop.
- Whereas, the S&P 500 (SPY ) decreased the least for the rolling month, with a 2.64% decrease.
Foreign Equity Review
- All major foreign tracking ETFs are down for the week, except the United Kingdom (EWU ), which is up 1.60%, and Japan (EWJ ), which remained flat.
- Brazil (EWZ ) plummeted this week, as the equity tracking ETF dropped 7.51%.
- Russia (RSX ) decreased the least for the rolling month period, with a 2.56% drop.
- India (EPI ) was by-far the worst performer for the rolling month, with the ETF dropping more than 10%.
Commodities Review
- All commodities are down for the week, except for oil (USO ), which continues its rally this week with a 3.88% gain. It’s also the best performing major commodity in the rolling month, up 15.02%.
- Silver (SLV ) is the worst performing major commodity this week, down 3.03%.
- Copper (JJC ) had the worst performance for the rolling month out of the major commodities, with the ETF declining 6.36%.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is up 0.86% this week mainly due to the hawkish tone by the Fed during the FOMC meeting minutes this Wednesday. A rate hike this June is now more realistic than ever.
- The British pound (FXB ) has done really well this week and for the rolling month, as the ETF is up 1.50% and 1.36%, respectively.
- Emerging market currencies are underperforming this week as evident by the 2.04% decline of the WisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund (CEW ).
- The Australian dollar (FXA ) is struggling the most for the 1-month period, as the ETF is down significantly at -7.3%. A major catalyst for this development is, again, the hawkish tone by the Fed on Wednesday.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
