Monday, October 9, 2017

Columbus Day & the New Normal Continues

Monday, October 9, 2017 - The new normal continued last week with major indices hitting record highs as the Dow gained 368.58 points, or 1.6%, to 22,773.67, the Nasdaq gained 1.5% to 6,590.18, a record high, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which hit a record high on Thursday, rose 1.2% to 2,549.33.

This all happened while political uncertainty continued to rise including a horrific act of violence against concert goers in Las Vegas. The VIX index, which is used to measure the fear of investors, continued to hit record lows. Wall Street even shook off a weaker than expected jobs report, mainly placing blame on the two devastating hurricanes that hit the nation, on the drop in payroll numbers.

In ETFs, some of the biggest news included the potential relaxing of restrictions around custom baskets. If granted, “the applications, would permit index ETFs, including what are commonly referred to as “self-indexed” ETFs, substantially more flexibility to customize their baskets”. More specifically, the ETFs could sell and redeem creation units using different baskets, neither of which is a pro rata slice of the portfolio (generically, “Custom Baskets”); provided that the ETF’s Board, including a majority of its independent directors, approves it as being in the best interest of the ETF written policies and procedures detailing.”

In our ETFG Quant Movers, we saw a shift out of multi-national ETFs and gains in single-nation tracking funds. Losers included the Columbia Sustainable International Equity Income ETF (ESGN), iShares Global Timber & Forestry ETF (WOOD) and ProShares MSCI Europe Dividend Growers ETF (EUDV) which lost, 7.39 7.23 and 6.89 points to their overall scores respectively. Gainers included the WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (EPI), Guggenheim U.S. Large Cap Optimized Volatility ETF (OVLC) and the iShares MSCI Chile Capped ETF (ECH), which all added 10.49, 9.30 and 9.13 points to their overall scores respectively.

Our ETFG Select List saw some of the biggest changes in the large-cap strategy portion of the list with only one name remaining from last week, the Direxion Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted Index Shares (QQQE). The new additions to the section were the Guggenheim U.S. Large Cap Optimized Volatility ETF (OVLC), also the second highest Quant gainer, the First Trust Dorsey Wright Peoples Portfolio ETF (DWPP), the Guggenheim S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF (OEW) and the Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Company Index ETF (FNDE).

We will see if the markets can continue on their high rising streaks throughout a month that has historically set some new trends, such as the end of the tech bubble bear market in 2002, the end of the bull market in 2007 and end of the 2011 bear market.

Thank you for reading the ETF Global Perspectives!

ETFG 21 Day Free Trial:  https://www.etfg.com/signup/quick

_____________________________________________________________
Assumptions, opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice.  ETF Global LLC (“ETFG”) and its affiliates and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively ETFG Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy or timeliness of any information, including ratings and rankings and are not responsible for errors and omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information and ETFG Parties shall have no liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions therein, regardless of the cause, or for the results obtained from the use of such information. ETFG PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SUITABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE.  In no event shall ETFG Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the information contained in this document even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

ETFG ratings and rankings are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions. ETFG ratings and rankings should not be relied on when making any investment or other business decision.  ETFG’s opinions and analyses do not address the suitability of any security.  ETFG does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor.  While ETFG has obtained information from sources they believe to be reliable, ETFG does not perform an audit or undertake any duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives.


This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or other financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.  Any opinions expressed herein are given in good faith, are subject to change without notice, and are only correct as of the stated date of their issue.  Prices, values, or income from any securities or investments mentioned in this report may fall against the interests of the investor and the investor may get back less than the amount invested.  Where an investment is described as being likely to yield income, please note that the amount of income that the investor will receive from such an investment may fluctuate.  Where an investment or security is denominated in a different currency to the investor's currency of reference, changes in rates of exchange may have an adverse effect on the value, price or income of or from that investment to the investor.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.