SPY SPDR S&P 500

Profit taking pressures finally swept over Wall Street this week following a prolonged stretch of major equity indexes posting fresh all-time highs. On the home front, some investors stepped to the sidelines following a hint that the Fed might soon change its forward guidance, with regards to the timing of the first rate hike. On the global stage, crude oil’s seemingly never-ending slide remained the headline story, dragging down energy-related assets for another week [see also WisdomTree Launches Unique Emerging Market ETF; Deutsche Bank Debuts Euro Hedged Fund].

To help investors keep up with markets, we present our ETF Scorecard, which takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing. For most of the return comparisons below, we reference trailing 1-week and trailing 1-month returns; this offers a good insight into the prevailing sentiment in the markets by capturing the performances across short-term and longer-term time intervals [for more ETF news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Risk Appetite Review

Profit taking pressures suppressed the bulls’ risk appetite as evidenced by High Beta stocks losing the most over the past week from this group:

  // // Major Index Review

Emerging markets turned in the worst performance for a second week in a row, although all other major equity indexes also posted declines for the week: 

// // Domestic Sector Review

Financials and Utilities were the best performers over the last week, while Energy came in at the bottom of the barrel as crude oil prices continued their descent: 

  // // Foreign Equity Review

On the international front, Brazil and Russia posted the steepest losses for a second week in a row, largely due to continued weakness in the energy market: 

google.load('visualization', '1', {packages: ['corechart']}); function drawVisualization() { // Create and populate the data table. var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([ ['Index', '1-Week Return', '1-Month Return'], ['Brazil (EWZ)', -6.13, -7.36], ['Russia (RSX)', -12.43, -19.86], ['India (EPI)', -4.9, -3.45], ['China (FXI)', -3.32, 1.13], ['Japan (EWJ)', -2.04, -2.29], ['Australia (EWA)', -4.16, -8.96], ['Germany (EWG)', -0.81, 5.13], ['United Kingdom (EWU)', -3.64, -3.29], ]); var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat( {suffix: "%"}); formatter.format(data,1); formatter.format(data,2); var options = { title:"", width:700, height:400, title: "Geographic Review: Comparing Single Countries", colors: ["green", "orange"] }; // Create and draw the visualization. new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById('visualization105624')). draw(data, options); } google.setOnLoadCallback(drawVisualization); Alternatives Review

Commodities

Crude oil was the biggest loser over the past week and the commodity remains at the bottom of the barrel from a monthly perspective as well: 

// //

Currencies

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar took a breather from its ascent while the Aussie dollar and emerging market currencies turned in the worst performances for the week: 

  // //

*All data as of market close 12/11/2014.

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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.

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