The Week in Review US Index performance (5d): SPX +1.1%, DJIA +1.2%, RTY +0.5%, NDX +0.8%, TLT -1.0%
Equities continued their climb for a fourth week in a row as ECB President, “Super” Mario Draghi dazzled global markets with an expansion of the ECB’s bond buying program and cutting three different interest rates. On Friday, European indices bounced back (DAX +3.5%), as markets reassessed Draghi’s stimulus package.
Here are last week’s sector performers:
Here are last week’s largest International performers:
Next week I would expect increased volatility with more central bank meetings including the Bank of Japan meeting Tuesday evening and the US kicking off their two day FOMC meeting on Tuesday with the rate decision due out on Wednesday. We also have quadruple witching on Friday as options and futures expire along with quarterly index rebalancing.
In addition, we have a pick-up in US Economic calendar, see data due out next week:
ETF Flows for the Week
Overall: Last week Equity ETFs saw +$4.4B in net inflows (prior week +$4.0B). Note SPY (SPX) skewed the equity inflows as this ETF saw +$2.3B last week. In US sectors, the defensive theme continues as REITs, Utilities, and Consumer Staples, led inflows while Health Care, Financials, and Consumer Discretionary led outflows (see below for details).
In International ETFs, Emerging Market ETFs for the third week in a row saw decent inflows. EEM, VWO, and EMB led inflows in this space. In developed markets there was some repositioning as VEA (EAFE) saw $1.5B in inflows while two European ETFs, VGK & EZU, saw a combined -1.0B in outflows.
Two areas that have been on fire in terms of inflows cooled off last week. High Yield Bond ETF saw small outflows and Gold ETFs saw small inflows.
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