ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For Friday, January 17, 2014

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

————————————————————-

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-01162014/

————————————————————

Market Commentary

Friday, January 17, 2014

A FLAT WEEK FOR STOCKS

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

Stocks ended the past five trading days in somewhat of a mixed state. Essentially, the S&P and Dow traded flat this week, while the Nasdaq finished a bit higher as the chart above shows. Throughout the week there has been upward pressure on the market stemming from positive housing data; however, we also saw a number of quarterly corporate earnings reports miss the mark. Corporate earnings have been a little hit and miss so far this quarter, which has provided little incentive for stocks to add to last year’s gains.

The Federal Reserve gave us some positive news that domestic industrial production rose 0.3% in December, which makes it 5-months in a row of positive growth.

The USD gained against most major currencies (except the pound and yen) this week despite the news that U.S. housing starts dropped from a 5-year high. The Wall Street Journal dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.44% at 81.38.

The discouraging revenue outlook for Intel disappointed the market this week. Intel (INTC) shares fell by about 5% this week, which can impact ETFs that are invested heavily in the stock such as Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXX).

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight followed the sideways theme and only 3 out of 10 are showing positive numbers YTD.

Read More

Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 01/16/2014

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, January 16, 2014

Table of Content082312

If you are not familiar with some of the terminology used, please see the Glossary of Terms.

 

1. DOMESTIC EQUITY MUTUAL FUNDS/ETFs: BUY — since 10/25/2011

TTI

Our main directional indicator, the Domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI), broke through its long-term trend line generating a Sell for this area effective 8/9/2011. Over the recent past, we’ve seen the TTI hovering slightly below and above this dividing line between bullish and bearish territory. The clear break to the upside occurred on 10/24/11 and, effective 10/25/11, a new Buy signal for domestic equities went into effect.

As of today, our TTI (green line in above chart) has bounced off its long term trend line (red) by +4.42%.

To avoid a potential whip-saw, a Sell signal to move out of all domestic equity positions will be generated once we have clearly pierced the line to the downside. Be sure to tune in for the latest updates.

Read More

Sluggish Day For The Indexes; A Look At The Volatility Of China ETFs

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower today as lackluster fourth-quarter results came in from Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Best Buy (BBY). Best Buy (BBY) reported a sales decline for the holiday season, which came as a surprise to many investors.

The largest gainer of the day were Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (SRPT), up 40% after releasing positive trial data regarding its medical treatment for muscular dystrophy. Following second to Sarepta was the media measurement and distribution company Rentrak (RENT), which gained 26% after an announcement that CBS will be the first major network to host its advanced demographics rating service.

On the job front, weekly initial jobless claims fell by less than 1% to a seasonally adjusted 326,000. This is a further indication that the jobs market appears to be stabilizing. What’s more, unemployment is currently under 7% for the first time in six years, however, as we all know, a declining participation rate has been the greatest contributor.

China A-Shares ETF is a fairly new type of Chinese ETF investment. However, the lackluster economic scenario in China has not only crushed existing popular ETFs, but China A-Shares ETFs as well. While both Market Vectors China ETF (PEK) and PowerShares China A-Share Portfolio (CHNA) have tumbled more than 10% in the last one month, (ASHR) has fallen in the high single digits. A slowing economy and debt are mostly to blame.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight meandered during this non-directional day and pretty much ended unchanged.

Read More

J.C. Penny Layoffs; India To Construct World’s Largest Solar Plant

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Wed pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

One of the biggest news items today was that J.C. Penny (JCP) announced (just after the market closed) it will be closing 33 stores and cutting 2,000 jobs. The cuts will essentially result in cost savings of about $65 million according to Chief Executive Mike Ullman. The stock was down 0.86% today and has continued to slide in after-hour trading. It will be interesting to see the markets reaction during Thursday’s normal trading hours.

In the tech world, most stocks gained today with notable attention being paid to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook reporting on the company’s partnership with China Mobile Ltd. Apple’s (AAPL) stock finished the day up 2%. Twitter (TWTR) and Microsoft (MSFT) also performed well today, closing at +5.8% and 2.7% respectively.

Today was a sunny day for solar in India as the Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN) reached a new 52-week high early on in trading. The news that India is constructing the world’s largest solar plant entailed bullish sentiment from investors and the ETF is now trading about 2% higher than it was at the open of trading today. India has never been a major player in Solar and does not even have an indigenous solar industry.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight joined the continued rebound with 5 of them now having moved into the plus column YTD.

Read More

Equities Rebound As Tesla Blazes A Trail

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Tue pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

Stocks rebounded today which resulted in the S&P 500 posting its largest gain so far this year.  Positive market sentiment today seemed to rally around the Fed’s Richard Fisher and Charles Plosser optimistic economic recovery as they expressed continued support for the central bank tapering.  However, many investors seem to feel that a stronger U.S. economy could lead to the Fed dialing back the stimulus at a quicker pace, which would not bode well for the equity market.

One of the largest movers of the day was Tesla Motors (TSLA), which surged 16% and experienced 2x normal trading volume as it announced that it sold 20% more cars in Q4 than anticipated.  Also today, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) released their quarterly earnings, which actually beat expectations but only resulted in minimal gains in their stock price.

The dollar gained against the yen, but gained no ground against the euro.

2014 is still going well for Gold it seems as the Direxion Daily Jr Gld Mnrs Bull 3X Shrs (JNUG) leads the pack in YTD return with 36.28%. Trailing not far behind in the #2 spot of largest YTD return is the Velocity Shares 3x Inverse Crude ETN (DWTI), which has realized a 23.07% return.

Yesterday’s market anxiety vanished as our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight picked up steam and recovered most of their losses.

Read More

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.

Read More