Bullish pressures returned to Wall Street, following a choppy finish to the week prior. Major equity indexes were able to rebound modestly after investors digested better-than-expected retail sales data along with upbeat Philly Fed numbers. Volatility still permeated the markets, as investors kept a close watch on developments between Ukraine and Russia. On the earnings front, this season is off to a fairly soft start seeing as how many bellwethers set low expectations during the last round of earnings, thereby making it less likely that they’ll post disappointing results this time around.
To help investors keep up with markets, we present our ETF Scorecard, which takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing. For most of the return comparisons below, we reference trailing 1-week as well as trailing 1-month returns; this offers a good insight of the prevailing sentiment in the markets by capturing the performance across a short-term as well as longer-term time interval [for more ETF news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].
Risk Appetite Review
Investors’ risk appetite grew amid the rebound this week, and riskier securities took the lead after enduring steeper selling pressures than their lower-volatility counterparts the week prior.
Major Index Review
Emerging markets remain in the lead after kicking off 2014 on very weak footing; developed market securities did manage to rebound this week, but they still remain well behind the broad-based EEM when comparing trailing monthly returns.
Domestic Sector Review
The energy sector took the lead this week by a fairly wide margin, managing to soar to all-time highs while the rest of the group trailed behind, with the industrials sector taking the number two spot.
Foreign Equity Review
Brazil’s equity market remains in the lead, although profit taking pressures have eaten away some of the stellar gains seen last week; the rest of the BRIC nations are tied for the number two spot when considering monthly returns.
Fixed-Income Review
Bond yields across the board inched higher as investors generally favored equities in lieu of fixed income securities amid the rebound on Wall Street this week.
Alternatives Review
Commodities
Precious metals endured a red week as investors jumped back over to riskier assets, namely equities. From a monthly perspective, energy commodities remain the leaders, followed closely by copper.
Currencies
Despite volatility arising from fears of the intensifying conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the currency market was fairly quiet this week as there were no major central bank announcements.