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.
- Markets are mostly up this week, however this morning the overall market has declined by about 1.0%.
- Crude oil inventories in the U.S. dropped by 14.5 million barrels this week against expectations of a 0.6 million increase. This is the largest weekly drop since January 1999.
- U.S. crude oil prices, struggling to break out of the $40 to $50 range, jumped to $47.25 on Thursday. The unexpected drop in crude oil supplies drove this rally.
- The ECB left its key interest rates unchanged at 0.0%, and refrained from extending its QE program beyond March 2017.
- Unemployment claims in the U.S. were at 259,000 this week, while expectations had a reading of 264,000.
- Eurozone’s GDP growth came in at 0.3% for the second quarter, in line with estimated forecasts. The economic recovery is expected to be slow due to subdued foreign demand, since Britain voted to leave the EU.
- U.S. consumer credit increased by 17.7 billion in July 2016, beating market expectations of 15.6 billion.
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Risk Appetite Review
- High-beta ETF (SPHB ) is the best performer, with an increase of 2.07% this week.
- The overall market as measured by the S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) was the worst performer this week, increasing by 0.05%.
- The equal weight ETF (RSP ) came in second place this week, with an increase of 0.51%.
Major Index Review
- Most major indexes are up this week, except PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ ) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA ), which are down a modest 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.
- Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ) is the best performer for the week, with a 1.82% gain, and the second-best performer for the rolling month, with a gain of 2.62%.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA ) is the worst performer for the rolling month, with a loss of 0.30%.
Foreign Equity Review
- All major foreign equity ETFs are up this week and rolling month except the United Kingdom, which is down 0.12% for the week.
- Russia (RSX ) is the best performer for the week, with a 3.58% gain, partly due to the pact with Saudi Arabia announced on Monday to stabilize the struggling oil market.
- China (FXI ) is the best performer for the rolling month, with a 7.23% gain.
Commodities Review
- Oil (USO ) is the best performer for the week and rolling month, increasing by 7.45% and 7.56% respectively, due to the drop in U.S. crude oil supplies.
- Gas (UNG ) is the worst performer for the week, falling by 0.60%.
- Copper (JJC ) is the worst performer for the rolling month, with a 3.21% decrease.
Currency Review
- The U.S. dollar (UUP ) is down for the week and rolling month, with a loss of 0.45% and 1.33% respectively.
- The British pound (FXB ) is the best performer for the rolling month, increasing by 2.57%.
- WisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund (CEW ) is the best performer, increasing by 1.28% this week.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
