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.
For more ETF news and analysis, subscribe to our free newsletter.
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.
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.
For more ETF analysis, make sure to sign up for our free ETF newsletter.
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
