Stocks Slump, But Corn Looks Tasty!

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Mon pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

U.S. stocks experienced a late day sell off that brought the benchmark indexes to a 4-month low. The sell-off was primarily a reaction to the weak December jobs report and the Fed’s comments about further reducing the stimulus. The December jobs report claimed that only 74,000 jobs were added in December, which was the smallest gain in three years. Investors may also be a bit on edge in anticipation of earnings releases from a number of large banks tomorrow.

On a positive economic note the Fed recorded a $53 billion budget surplus in December, which brings the government’s budget deficit down to $174 billion for Q1.

Google (GOOG) saw a 0.5% jump today as news spread that they are acquiring Nest Labs Inc., which develops technology for home automation (such as energy-efficient thermostats and smoke/carbon dioxide alarms).

It was all about Corn today in the ETF market.  2013 was a terrible year for the corn market as investors saw the Teucrium Corn ETF (CORN) drop by roughly 30% in 2013. After a horrendous 18 months however things might be looking up for corn. The (CORN) ETF soared in Friday trading and finished strong Monday, as the government’s report surprised the market with a reduction in corn yields.

While the anxiety in the markets caused our ETFs in the Spotlight to slip along with the indexes, it did not affect their long-term direction as the second table below shows.

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ETFs/Mutual Funds On The Cutline – Updated Through 01/10/2014

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 398 ETFs, of which currently 324 (last week 317) 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 93 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. 62 ETFs (last week 61) have managed to remain in bullish territory after the recent market volatility.

The third report covers Mutual Funds on the Cutline. There are currently 703 (last week 679) above the line and 146 below it out of the 859 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.

Please note that Mutual fund prices have not been adjusted for yearend distributions.

One Man’s Opinion: Are Industrials Likely To Outperform If GDP Grows At Three Percent Or More?

Ulli Market Review Contact

92835431The growth environment is getting better, and it may surprise in terms of its strength. As that happens, the Fed is going to get a little bit more concerned about their policy, said David Joy, Chief Market Strategist at Ameriprise Financial. The market is going to anticipate that inflation is going to rise a little bit. Clearly the Fed is in a shifting mode and, as a result, equities are going to struggle when the liquidity environment starts to deteriorate despite an improved operating environment, he observed.

Asked if he would stay overweight in equities, David said investors should remain overweight in equities, at least relative to bonds. But, at the same time, there will be a market correction at some point when investors start to get concerned about the future Fed policy.

That would be a better entry point and investors may decide to hold a higher cash balance, i.e. if normally cash comprises 5 percent of total asset holdings, investors may decide to increase it to 10-20 percent. However, it’s difficult to predict when correction will happen, though it’s certain to happen some time this year, he argued.

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New ETFs On The Block: Wisdomtree Japan Interest Rate Strategy Fund (JGBB)

Ulli Country ETFs Contact

91551519Japanese stocks have performed exceedingly well since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated reformative initiatives earlier last year to boost the economy. The so-called “Abenomics” that mandated structural reforms and easy monetary policies, boosted investor confidence in Japanese equities, making Japan the best-performing developed market in the world.

Japanese stocks surged 56.7 percent in local currency terms last year as the yen tumbled and the Nikkei 225 index broke above a long-term downtrend line for the first time since early 1990s.

The Bank of Japan has been pumping liquidity in the economy and has been expanding the monetary base at an annual rate of about 60-70 trillion yen. The BoJ’s bond buying spree has kept a lid on the yields of Japanese Government Bonds (JGB) and, according to BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, interest rates will start to rise once inflation hits the central bank’s target of 2 percent.

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01-10-2014

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For Friday, January 10, 2014

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/01/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-01092014/

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Market Commentary

Friday, January 10, 2014

STOCKS STILL COLD THIS WEEK, BUT ENGERGY ETFS DON’T MIND

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

U.S. stocks ended Friday mixed after the U.S. December jobs report disappointed though losses were limited and trading remained choppy. However, for the week, most of the indices gained, as the above chart shows.

The dollar slumped against most major currencies on Friday after official data revealed the U.S. economy picked some steam, which created concerns the Federal Reserve may not take its time dismantling stimulus programs.

In the end, utility companies remain poised to benefit from severe cold as more Americans use electricity for heating, leading to higher bills. Though there are several ETFs in this space, the two ultra-popular Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) and Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU) might be good options, although both remain on the bearish side of their respective trend line.

The top ETFs this week were Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) 8%, the iShares MSCI Poland ETF (EPOL), which closed at a new two-year high after gaining 3.8 percent this week, the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3x ETF (NUGT) and the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) 6.3%.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight made some recovery attempt as the indexes headed slightly higher for the week with 3 out of 10 now showing positive numbers YTD.

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.

In other words, none of them ever triggered their 7.5% sell stop level during this time period, which included a variety of severe market pullbacks but no move into outright bear market territory.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

All of them are in “buy” mode meaning their prices are above their respective long term trend lines by the percentage indicated (%M/A).

Now let’s look at the MaxDD% column and review the ETF with the lowest drawdown as an example. As you can see, that would be XLY with the lowest MaxDD% number of -5.73%, which occurred on 11/15/2012.

The recent sell off in the month of June did not affect XLY at all as its “worst” MaxDD% of -5.73% still stands since the November 2012 sell off.

A quick glance at the last column showing the date of occurrences confirms that five of these ETFs had their worst drawdown in November 2012, while the other five were affected by the June 2013 swoon, however, none of them dipped below their -7.5% sell stop.

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

YTD

3. Domestic Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Looking at the big picture, our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) recovered from last week’s slippage and remain above their long term trend lines by the following percentages:

Domestic TTI: +4.33% (last Friday +4.09%)

International TTI: +6.83% (last Friday +6.20%)

Have a great week.

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

A note from reader Larry:

Q: Ulli:

I am a little confused about the buy back in as described in the paragraph below from your e-book:

“b. If the price of SPY was above its 39-week SMA at the time we got stopped out, the new Buy point would occur once the old basis for figuring out the sell stop has been taken out. Once that happens, we buy the following day at the close.”

Please clarify.  I take it that if SPY stopped out above the 39 week SMA at a price of say $130.95 and the SPY never fell below the 39 week SMA and resumed its uptrend that one would buy back at a price of $130.95; is that correct and if not please help me understand.

A: Larry: As I described in the e-book, for those who strictly follow SPY, there are 2 exit strategies. You mentioned 1 of them. If SPY did NOT break below its SMA, than the old basis, or old high, that was used to figure the trailing sell stop to begin with, should be used to re-enter.

Let’s take the current number for SPY. The current price is 183.52, the current High point is at 184.69 and the SMA is at 169.54. Say, the price declines off its high by 7.5% to 170.84; that would cause a sell signal. Let’s say, it was executed at 170, which is still above the SMA. Let’s assume the market resumes its upward trend without breaking the trend line. So, the new entry point is a break through the old high of 184.69, which would confirm a resumption of the upward trend.

Keep in mind that this is not an exact science, but merely a way to establish some kind of exit strategy in order to avoid major portfolio disaster.

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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 Friday, January 10, 2014

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/01/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-01092014/

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Market Commentary

Friday, January 10, 2014

STOCKS STILL COLD THIS WEEK, BUT ENGERGY ETFS DON’T MIND

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

U.S. stocks ended Friday mixed after the U.S. December jobs report disappointed though losses were limited and trading remained choppy. However, for the week, most of the indices gained, as the above chart shows.

The dollar slumped against most major currencies on Friday after official data revealed the U.S. economy picked some steam, which created concerns the Federal Reserve may not take its time dismantling stimulus programs.

In the end, utility companies remain poised to benefit from severe cold as more Americans use electricity for heating, leading to higher bills. Though there are several ETFs in this space, the two ultra-popular Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) and Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU) might be good options, although both remain on the bearish side of their respective trend line.

The top ETFs this week were Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) 8%, the iShares MSCI Poland ETF (EPOL), which closed at a new two-year high after gaining 3.8 percent this week, the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3x ETF (NUGT) and the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) 6.3%.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight made some recovery attempt as the indexes headed slightly higher for the week with 3 out of 10 now showing positive numbers YTD.

Read More