Tag Archives: health

Top And Flop ETFs Of November

Finally, the U.S. stock market has entered into its strong stretch. Historically, the three months from November through January are the most successful in the stock markets. A consensus carried out from 1950 to 2013 has revealed that November has ended up offering positive returns in 43 years and negative returns in 22 years, with an average return of 1.37%, as per moneychimp.com . November stands second in terms of monthly returns over the past two decades. However, this year, the market looked more like the down-years due to a host of concerns, with rising rate worries being at the helm. Global growth has been in jeopardy and commodities falling fast. Among the top ETFs, investors saw U.S. ETFs advance slightly with SPY adding 0.3%, DIA gaining 0.12% and QQQ moving higher by about 0.25% in the month (as of November 27, 2015). Let’s take a look at the three best and worst performing ETFs of the month. Top Performers KraneShares CSI China Five Year Plan ETF (NYSEARCA: KFYP ) – Up 14.7% China was the beneficiary of compelling valuation. After a bloodbath in August following the currency devaluation and several offhand economic data, China started to recoup losses from October with its A-Shares ETFs turning out as chartbusters in November. Plenty of monetary easing policies, changes in demographic policy and hopes for further easing (as the economy is still reeling under pressure) helped KFYP to add over 14% in the month. BioShares Biotechnology Clinical Trials Fund (NASDAQ: BBC ) – Up 13% The biotech space was hit hard in September on drug pricing concerns. However, the sell-off made this piping hot corner affordable. A whirlwind of mergers and acquisitions, plenty of drug launches, FDA approvals for the highly awaited drugs, ever-increasing demand in the emerging markets and surging health care spending made this sector the star performer of November. Needless to say, the operating fundamentals of the health care space are stronger than many other sectors. Other biotech and pharma ETFs that stole the show in the month were SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF (NYSEARCA: XPH ), Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF (NASDAQ: CNCR ) and ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF (NYSEARCA: SBIO ) which advanced about 9.6%, 9.2% and 7%, respectively. Deutsche X-trackers Japan JPX-Nikkei 400 Hedged Equity ETF (NYSEARCA: JPNH ) – Up 12% Japan may have entered into a technical recession in Q3, but that did not turn off investors’ enthusiasm toward Japanese investing. An ongoing QE measure and hopes of further monetary support which can fight weakening growth and boost consumer prices were behind the optimism in the Japanese stocks. Another Japanese ETF that soared (about 10.7%) in the month was WisdomTree Japan Hedged Health Care Fund (NYSEARCA: DXJH ). Barclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETN (NASDAQ: TAPR ) – Up 8.2% As the Fed gave cues of a rate hike, the inverse U.S. Treasury ETF which follows a unique strategy to hedge against or benefit from the rising U.S. dollar interest rates by tracking the Barclays Inverse US Treasury Futures Aggregate Index, gained over 8%. Worst Performers Metals were slaughtered in the month. The double whammy of flagging global growth suppressing demand and the strength of the greenback in the wake of the U.S. policy tightening have weighed heavily on metal ETFs. ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (NYSEARCA: PALL ) – down 19.1% This product looks to reflect the price of palladium. This precious metal has a number of uses in society including jewelry and dentistry, though the key use is in the auto sector with catalytic converters to control emissions. As a result, following the Volkswagen scandal, demand for the metal declined. While a higher greenback dampened the metal price, the rise in U.S. interest rates would make auto loans pricier, which in turn might curb auto sales in the country. E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCITR Long Platinum ETN (NYSEARCA: PTM ) – down 18.4% This is a sub-index of the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index & measures the collateralized returns from a basket of platinum futures contracts which is designed to be representative of the entire liquid forward curve of the platinum contracts. In addition to usage in jewelry, platinum is widely used in auto-catalysts to control emissions and so its decline is self-explanatory. Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSEARCA: COPX ) – down 18.9% Copper prices slipped to a six-year low on growth concerns. A weak Chinese economy remains a concern for the fund for long. China matters the most for this metal as the country is the world’s biggest consumer of this industrial metal, making up roughly 40% of global copper demand. This headwind shattered the copper mining ETFs in November. Notably, mining ETFs generally trade as a leveraged play on the underlying metal and thus see a higher jump. iPath Dow Jones-UBS Nickel ETN (NYSEARCA: JJN ) – down 16.6% Nickel prices plummeted to a nine-year low. Solid exports from Malaysia are resulting in a supply glut and soft demand for stainless steel in Europe has wrecked havoc on nickel ETFs. Original Post

Health Of Eurozone Recovers: ETFs To Watch

The eurozone is showing signs of a speedy recovery, as evident from the four and a half year high expansion in its business activity for the month of November. According to a flash estimate by data firm Markit, the eurozone purchasing managers’ index inched up to 54.4 this month from 53.9 in October . This surpassed the threshold score of 50, which hints at an expansion in activity. The growth profile has weakened in recent times in the eurozone, failing rounds of monetary easing. The bloc recorded 0.3% growth in Q3, declining from a 0.4% rise in Q2 and falling short of market expectation. The growth rate in Q3 was the softest in a year as development cooled down in the eurozone’s heavyweights Germany and Italy. In such a backdrop, the news of fast-expanding business activity spread optimism among investors. New business growth was noticed in both service and manufacturing sectors. Germany turned up a super performer as companies experienced “their strongest monthly gains in new business orders for two years”. The boost has come at an opportune moment, when the ECB is mulling over further easing in policies to boost inflation and economic growth. The European Central Bank (ECB) president, Mario Draghi, reassured of a more intensified and protracted QE measure, if need be. He reaffirmed the evaluation of the monetary policy by the end of this year based on a volley of economic data. However, the latest upbeat data raises confusion over the ECB’s potential altruism in the December meeting, forcing some to believe that further easing may not be as generous as thought previously. But a stubbornly low inflation profile, thanks to the commodity market rout, gives all reasons to expect further monetary easing from the ECB. Overall, the chief economist at Markit indicated that the eurozone was “on course for one of its best quarterly performances over the past four and a half years.” Based on this data, he expects the euro bloc to post 0.4% economic growth in the final quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Greece received a bailout loan from the euro area member states as the former agreed to enact the stated austerity measures. ETFs to Watch Below, we highlight three European ETFs that could be tapped to play the latest uptick in business sentiments. To do this, we land up on currency-hedged ETFs, as this is the most-watched investing technique currently, thanks to opposing monetary policies in the U.S. and the eurozone. While the greenback is strengthening on a looming rate hike in the U.S., the euro is sliding on accommodative policies by the ECB (read: Guide to Currency Hedging ETFs ). WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity ETF (NASDAQ: DXGE ) Since Germany was the main driver of the latest surge in business activity, German ETFs warrant a look. This German ETF holds 75 securities in its basket. It has a slight tilt toward the consumer discretionary sector, with 21.7% share, followed by double-digit exposure each in financials, industrials, materials and healthcare. It has managed assets worth $286 million, and trades in good volume of 165,000 shares a day, on average. The fund charges 48 bps in annual fees, and is up 9.6% so far this year (as of November 23, 2015). DXGE has a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 with a Medium risk outlook. WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity ETF (NYSEARCA: HEDJ ) This fund can be viewed as a replica of the broad-based European growth. The fund appears rich, with AUM of nearly $21.3 billion. Its expense ratio comes in at 0.58%. Holding 130 securities in its basket, the product is pretty well spread out across components, with no firm making up for more than 6.19% of its assets. Consumer staples, industrial, consumer discretionary, financials and healthcare each have double-digit weight in the fund. In terms of country allocations, Germany and France are leading with 26.1% and 24.2% share, respectively, followed by the Netherlands (17.2%) and Spain (16.5%). The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) fund is up 11.2% so far this year (as of November 23, 2015). WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity ETF (NYSEARCA: EUSC ) Since small-caps companies tend to pick up more when an economy improves, a look at the small-cap European companies seems justified. The fund provides exposure to close to 237 of the smallest European companies. This ETF has amassed about $245.7 million. The product is highly diversified, with no stock accounting for more than 2.06% of the portfolio. Sector-wise, industrials get the maximum exposure, at 25.9% of the portfolio. Financials and consumer discretionary also get double-digit allocation each, while energy gets the least exposure, at only 2.35% of the basket. As far as country exposure is concerned, Italy (21.1%), Germany (17.2%), France (16.4%) and Finland (13.1%) get top priority. The fund charges 58 bps in fees, and is up about 1.6% so far this year. Original Post