Markets Full Steam Ahead To Begin The Week

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Mon pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

All major indexes closed higher to kick off the week of March 9th, apparently bullish on some tech stocks, Apple (AAPL) in particular. More details came out today on Apple’s newest gadget – The Apple Watch. Apple is looking to extend its dominance on mobile devices with the new gadget which Cook called “the most advanced timepiece ever created.”

It was previously announced that the “smartwatch”, which is the company’s first big rollout since the iPad, will go on sale in April, with three editions starting at $350. It was also revealed today that an 18-karat gold version will be available, starting at a meager price of $10,000.

In auto news, General Motors (GM) announced this morning that it will repurchase $5 billion in shares by the end of 2016, to begin immediately. Alongside the buyback, Harry Wilson will withdraw his candidacy from the GM board of directors.

And in M&A news, metals manufacturing giant Alcoa Inc. (AA) announced today that they plan on buying RTI International Metals (RTI) for a proposed $1.5 billion. The acquisition marks a strategic move from Alcoa to increase its presence in the aerospace business, a company representative said.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight followed the rebound to higher levels and closed up. Leading the charge today was healthcare (XLV) with a gain of +0.62%.

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ETFs/Mutual Funds On The Cutline – Updated Through 03/06/2015

Ulli ETFs on the Cutline Contact

Below are the latest ETF Cutline reports, which show how far above or below their respective long-term trend lines (39 week SMA) my currently tracked ETFs/MFs are positioned.

The first report covers the ETF Master List from Thursday’s StatSheet and includes 410 ETFs, of which currently 246 (last week 291) are hovering in bullish territory.

The second report includes only High Volume ETFs. To clarify, High Volume (HV) ETFs are defined as those with an average daily volume of $10 million or higher.

These ETFs are generated from my selected list of some 97 that I use in my advisor practice. It cuts out the “noise,” which simply means it eliminates those ETFs that I would never buy because of their volume limitations. 41 ETFs (last week 51) have managed to remain in bullish territory after the recent market volatility.

The third report covers Mutual Funds on the Cutline. There are currently 281 (last week 459) above the line and 439 below it out of the 820 that I follow.

Take a look:

1. ETF Master Cutline Report

2. ETF High Volume Cutline Report

3. MF Cutline Report

In case you are not familiar with some of the terminology used in the reports, please read the Glossary of Terms.

If you missed the original post about the Cutline approach, you can read it here.

One Man’s Opinion: Will The Fed Be Careful About Raising Rates?

Ulli Market Review Contact

92835431The latest jobs report showed the economy created 295,000 jobs in February and surprised markets on the upside though overall the report was not as good as the headline-number would suggest, said Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

The unemployment rate also came down a bit, but that was driven primarily by weak labor-force participation. Similarly, wage gains also came in a little bit on the softer side; so when all data points are taken together, it’s a good report but not wildly away from expectations, he added.

Most of the sectors across the board witnessed robust growth with manufacturing and business services topping the chart. Even retail added 32,000 in a month when everybody thought the deadlock at the West Coast port would slow down things pretty much.

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New ETFs On The Block: iShares MSCI International Developed Momentum/Quality Factor ETF (IMTM, IQLT)

Ulli International ETFs Contact

91551519iShares, the San Francisco-based exchange-traded fund issuing arm of BlackRock, recently launched two international factor-based ETFs to expand its lineup of the so-called smart-beta funds. Many analysts, however, believe that latest launches were an attempt by the world’s biggest ETF issuer to match the wide-range of multi-factor fund offerings by rival provider State Street Global Advisors.

To be sure, the timing of the launch is also important, particularly when the European Central Bank is scheduled to launch its own version of an open-ended Quantitative Easing as of Monday.

Both the passively-managed funds – the iShares MSCI International Developed Momentum Factor ETF (IMTM) and the iShares MSCI International Quality Factor ETF (IQLT), seek opportunities in developed markets outside the US and, like their US-focused earlier avatars MTUM and QUAL, both the new ETFs seeks to tap returns generally not available with traditional capitalization-weighted funds.

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03-06-2015

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For March 6, 2015

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03052015/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 6, 2015

STOCKS CLOSE THE WEEK ON A DOWN NOTE

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

U.S. stocks fell sharply today as better-than-forecasted jobs data fueled anticipation that the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates. Stocks have had an eventful week. On Monday, the Nasdaq composite closed above the 5000 barrier for the first time in 15 years and the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index notched fresh all-time closing highs. Yesterday, both the Dow and S&P 500 rose, ending a brief two-day losing streak.

Economic data for the week was mixed overall, with Friday’s stronger-than-expected employment report prompting market volatility to pick up at the close the week. Data continues to point toward growth of 2.5% to 3% for 2015 in the U.S., which is a stronger pace than most developed economies around the globe—that is if your believe in those forecasts.

Looking forward to the next week, fewer major economic releases are expected. February retail sales numbers on Thursday and the producer price index and University of Michigan sentiment reports on Friday are likely to headline the week on the economic front.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight succumbed to the bearish forces and closed down with 7 of them holding on to YTD gains as the table in section 2 shows.

2. ETFs in the Spotlight

In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.

It features 10 broadly diversified ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Monday. 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.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

The above 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/Mutual fund choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.

Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:

YTD

Again, the first table above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines (%M/A), while the second one tracks their trailing sell stops 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.

3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) took a dive from last Friday’s close but remain on the bullish side of their respective trend lines.

Here’s how we ended this week:

Domestic TTI: +2.74% (last Friday +3.84%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +2.98% (last Friday +3.76%)—Buy signal effective 2/13/2015

Have a nice weekend.

Ulli…

Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as advisory clients of mine, own some of these listed ETFs. 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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READER Q & A FOR THE WEEK

All Reader Q & A’s are listed at our web site!
Check it out at:

http://www.successful-investment.com/q&a.php

Reader Ed:

Q: Ulli: In looking at the data you have for the ETFS/Funds, what would be the best way to use the data to come up with potential ETF/Fund buys or conversely sells.

I’m not asking for a recommendation, just the process used to pick the best ETF’s/Funds listed. I mostly use Vanguard ETF’s and funds. If you think I should try other fund families, can you tell me the process to find the best ones?

I don’t like funds with high fees or restrictions in trading, although I don’t do that much, other than to balance my holdings. I’d very much the input you can provide.

A: Ed: While there are many ways to use the ETF/MF tables, I personally prefer to select a mix of funds, preference being ETFs, which demonstrate good upward momentum yet have shown historically some decent resistance to market pullbacks.

You can do that by dropping down the ranking list from the top a few spots, which would eliminate those high performers that tend to collapse quickly during corrections. Our goal is to remain invested as long as possible during up trends while minimizing any potential whip-saw signals.

To make it even easier, I selected 10 ETFs in the Spotlight, which are featured and updated in my daily market commentary. They were chosen based on performance and above average resistance to sell offs along with the fact that they are all trading in high volume. Times change and ETF performance rotates, but you can select from that list and/or find the equivalent at Vanguard, if you prefer.

Hope that helps.

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR INVESTMENTS PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED?

Do you have the time to follow our investment plans yourself? If you are a busy professional who would like to have his portfolio managed using our methodology, please contact me directly or get more details at:

https://theetfbully.com/personal-investment-management/

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Back issues of the ETF/No Load Fund Tracker are available on the web at:

https://theetfbully.com/newsletter-archives/

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For March 6, 2015

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

————————————————————-

THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03052015/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 6, 2015

STOCKS CLOSE THE WEEK ON A DOWN NOTE

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

U.S. stocks fell sharply today as better-than-forecasted jobs data fueled anticipation that the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates. Stocks have had an eventful week. On Monday, the Nasdaq composite closed above the 5000 barrier for the first time in 15 years and the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index notched fresh all-time closing highs. Yesterday, both the Dow and S&P 500 rose, ending a brief two-day losing streak.

Economic data for the week was mixed overall, with Friday’s stronger-than-expected employment report prompting market volatility to pick up at the close the week. Data continues to point toward growth of 2.5% to 3% for 2015 in the U.S., which is a stronger pace than most developed economies around the globe—that is if your believe in those forecasts.

Looking forward to the next week, fewer major economic releases are expected. February retail sales numbers on Thursday and the producer price index and University of Michigan sentiment reports on Friday are likely to headline the week on the economic front.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight succumbed to the bearish forces and closed down with 7 of them holding on to YTD gains as the table in section 2 shows.

Read More