Major Stock ETFs Testing 200-Day Average After Weekly Pullback
Equity ETFs hitched to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are testing an important technical indictor in the wake of President Barack Obama securing a second term in office. Renewed worries over Greece and Europe’s debt crisis also fueled this week’s stock pullback.
The S&P 500 was on track for a weekly decline of 2.2% in afternoon trading Friday, while the Dow shed 2% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.3%.
The S&P 500 and Dow are trading around their 200-day moving average.
“People are focused on news about the discussions on the fiscal cliff,” Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Group, told Bloomberg News. “There does seem to be a movement to force our politicians to come to an agreement so we don’t fall into a recession.”
This week’s top ETFs performers were funds tracking VIX futures, silver, Treasuries, gasoline, gold and miner stocks. The top three unleveraged ETFs this week were iShares Silver Trust (SLV), ETFS Physical Silver (SIVR) and PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon US Treasury (ZROZ) with gains of about 5%.
Conversely, ETFs following utilities, coal, mortgage REITs, Spain and Italy were among the weakest categories. The bottom three unleveraged ETFs were First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX (FXU), Market Vectors Coal (KOL) and iShares MSCI Spain (EWP) with setback of 4% or more.
In next week’s economic data, look for reports on the federal budget, retail sales, producer prices, business inventories, the latest FOMC minutes, consumer prices and industrial production. Monday is Veteran’s Day – the U.S. bond market is closed but the stock market will be open.
iShares S&P 500 (IVV)
Full disclosure: Tom Lydon’s clients own SLV.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of John Spence, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.
