Don Dion’s Weekly ETF Winners and Losers
It was a down week for the index after Friday’s energy and transportation led a decline. Disappointing earnings from railroads spooked the market, despite Amazon’s(AMZN) impressive earnings. The S&P 500 Index finished the week with a 0.7% loss.
Dick Bove caused a bit of a stir Wednesday after he made positive comments on Wells Fargo(WFC) in the morning, only to reverse them in the afternoon, sending WFC down more than 5% on the day and triggering a market-wide sell-off. Still, when the dust was settled, the gains in the winners outstripped the losses in the losers.
Winners
Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate(TAO) +6.0%
There were some reasons to think Chinese real estate firms would underperform, given a string of less than stellar IPOs, but a successful IPO of China Real Estate Information (CRIC) on Friday and the 7% increase in the offering size of the pending Hong Kong IPO of Evergrande, a Chinese developer, suggests that some demand has come back into the market.
PowerShares DB Base Metals(DBB) +7.7%
iPath Copper Total Return ETN(JJC) +6.5%
Industrial metals picked up thanks to positive economic data. Dr. Copper is said to have the best forecasting ability of any economist, and he’s grown more bullish in October, after turning a bit bearish in September.
iPath Grains Total Return (JJG) +7.0%
PowerShares DB Agriculture(DBA) +1.7%
Last week, DBA was a winner for the week as short-covering lifted grains, but this week JJG was the winner, with DBA’s mild gain unimpressive and included only for comparison. JJG has nearly half the portfolio in soybeans, almost one-third in corn, and less than one-quarter in wheat. Corn and soybeans spiked this week and the more concentrated JJG benefited.
Losers
Market Vectors Indonesia(IDX) -2.8%
IDX has had a nearly uninterrupted run since March. Recently, it closed near $63 on Oct. 6, but then fell near $60 on Oct. 12, only to rebound to just over $63 a share two days later, then retest that level again, only to tumble again towards $60 a share on Thursday of this week. It gained on Friday, however, and it needs to decisively break below $60 before I’d become bearish, but that doesn’t mean it’s a buy at these levels.
PowerShares Dynamic Biotech & Genome(PBE) -6.2%
iShares Nasdaq Biotech(IBB) -4.8%
Biotech continues to lag in this rally and last week was another disappointing one. Amgen(AMGN), the top holding at more than 11% of assets, sank after reporting earnings and was the main catalyst for the drop in IBB, but the general trend lower hit PBE even harder.
Market Vectors Gold Miners(GDX) -3.5%
GDX took a breather this week as the advance in gold stalled and the overall market was down. Gold has moved in fits and starts, and unless the stock market is rallying, the gold miners trend lower as the excitement wanes, only to resume their advance one the yellow metal makes a new high.
