- Moving the markets
The major indexes managed to recover in sync for a change with the S&P 500 snapping its 4-day losing streak. Wall Street was continuing to focus on the progress of the tax legislation while looking with much anticipation towards Friday’s jobs report. Apparently, the possibility of a government shutdown did not affect markets, as discussions to keep things running were/are going on in full force.
Today’s favorite color in ETF space was “green” for a change with only the Dividend ETF (SCHD) ending down with a modest -0.06%. Leading to the upside were Transportations (IYT) with +1.35% followed by Semiconductors (SMH +0.98%) and US SmallCaps (SCHA +0.80%).
Interest rates moved higher with the yield on the 10-year bond adding 4 basis points to close at 2.37%. Suffering from that increase was the 20-year bond (TLT), the price of which slipped -0.78%; its first losing session after 4 days of gains. Crude oil rose but gold got clobbered again and dropped below the $1,250 level. The US dollar (UUP) liked the rise in rates and rallied for the 4th straight day by adding +0.21% and conquering its 50-day M/A.
- ETFs in the Spotlight (updated for 2017)
In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.
It features 10 broadly diversified and sector ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Saturday. Furthermore, they are screened for the lowest MaxDD% number meaning they have been showing better resistance to temporary sell offs than all others over the past year.
The below table simply demonstrates the magnitude with which some of the ETFs are fluctuating in regards to their positions above or below their respective individual trend lines (%M/A). A break below, represented by a negative number, shows weakness, while a break above, represented by a positive percentage, shows strength.
For hundreds of ETF choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.
Year to date, here’s how the 2017 candidates have fared so far:
Again, the %M/A column above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines, while the trailing sell stops are being tracked in the “Off High” column. The “Action” column will signal a “Sell” once the -7.5% point has been taken out in the “Off High” column.
- Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)
Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) gained as the major indexes rebounded in sync.
Here’s how we closed 12/07/2017:
Domestic TTI: +3.39% above its M/A (last close +3.18%)—Buy signal effective 4/4/2016
International TTI: +5.07% above its M/A (last close +4.84%)—Buy signal effective 7/19/2016
Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as my advisory clients, own some of the ETFs listed in the above table. Furthermore, they do not represent a specific investment recommendation for you, they merely show which ETFs from the universe I track are falling within the guidelines specified.
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