Punch, Counterpunch

Monday, April 9, 2018 – Persistent threats of a trade war with China continued to exacerbate downward pressure on the markets over the last week. Moreover, an announcement of potential retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods from China was the latest response to the steel and aluminum tariffs proposed by President Trump. The blow by blow color commentary saw The White House respond with proposed tariffs on 1,300 Chinese products worth about $50 billion and then the Chinese government responded with tariffs on $50 billion on U.S. exports in the auto, aerospace and agriculture industries.

Every sector was down last week as the Dow ended the week off .7%, the S&P off 1.4%, and the NASDAQ ended down 2.1%. Industrials, Tech, and Healthcare took the biggest hits losing 2.05%, 2.09% and 1.87% respectively. Economic indicators released, saw the March Jobs Report reflect that 103,000 jobs were created in March, which was lower than expected for the month. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%, Wage growth ticked up to 2.7%.

ETFG Equity Exposure Report - We now enter the beginning of first-quarter earnings season. Large financial services firms such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Blackrock will begin reporting their results this week. Using the ETF Global Equity Exposure Report, we can see what ETFs have the most exposure to these stocks. Some of the biggest holders of Blackrock (BLK) are TETF, ETF Industry Exposure & Financial Services ETF, which has 6.25% exposure and WBIG, WBI Large Cap Tactical Yield Shares, which has 3.9% exposure.

ETFG Quant Movers - This week in the Biggest gainers section of the ETFG Quant model we had  GNRX, VanEck Vectors Generic Drugs ETF, which gained 22.41%, FCA, First Trust China AlphaDEX Fund, which gained 22.08% HFXE, and IQ 50 Percent Hedged FTSE Europe ETF, which gained 21.50%. On the flip side, we had REMX, VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF,  lose 17.23%, SPLV, PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio, lose 16.78% and  ORG, The Organics ETF  lose 14.90%.

ETFG Weekly Select List - On the ETFG Select list, we had 2 funds that went from being unranked last week to being the number one fund in their respective category this week. UTLF, iShares Edge MSCI Multifactor Utilities ETF, in the Utilities category and PPH, VanEck Vectors Pharmaceutical ETF, in the global category.

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