Today marks the end of the first full week of April. Let’s review the winners and losers with an eye towards tracking market undercurrents.
By tracking the markets undercurrents, we are looking for changes in trend, with the goal of staying ahead of the curve.
Winners – 1 week
iShares US Home Construction 4.27%
Direxion Daily Gold Miners 2.97%
iShares MSCI Eurozone 2.64%
SPDR S&P Homebuilders 2.48%
Energy Select Sector SPDR 2.44%
Losers – 1 week
VanEck Vectors Russia -11.17%
iShares MSCI Brazil Capped -4.96%
Direxion Daily Gold Miners -3.48%
VanEck Vectors Gold Miners -1.10%
iShares MSCI Emerging Mark -0.59%
You can’t tell much about trends by looking at one week of data, but sometimes you can find surprises. Here’s what I see in the 1 week numbers: The market got quieter, foreign markets outperformed U.S. markets, U.S. financials were hot, gold was not, and small caps lost ground to big caps.
Winners – 1 month
Direxion Daily Gold Miners 5.17%
iPath Goldman Sachs Crude 2.91%
Utilities Select Sector SP 2.27%
VanEck Vectors Gold Miners 1.92%
iShares MSCI Eurozone -0.70%
Losers – 1 month
VanEck Vectors Russia -14.95%
PowerShares QQQ -8.91%
iShares MSCI Brazil Capped -8.72%
SPDR S&P Regional Banking -8.70%
Financial Select Sector SP. -8.06%
What’s going on?
We now have the beginning of a theme. The market has become more volatile; gold miners, oil, and utilities are leading the market; Russia, big tech, and Brazil are struggling a bit.
This is how you develop your themes as an investor. You look for trends, and trend reversals. Then you adjust your asset allocation accordingly. Today we only covered 1-week and 1-month time frames, but that’s enough to get a sense of the undercurrents in the market.