SPY SPDR S&P 500

Following a multi-day stretch of profit-taking on Wall Street, the bulls returned with full force in light of soothing words from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday of this week. Policymakers at home inspired a great deal of confidence among investors when they said that the Fed would remain “patient” with regards to the timing of the first rate hike. Overseas, investors remained fixated on the collapse of Russia’s equity market amid back-and-forth trading in oil futures [see BioShares and Reality Share Make Their Debut, ValueShares Launches IVAL]. 

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

The bulls returned to the market with an appetite for risk, as evidenced by the positive returns across this entire group:

  // // Major Index Review

Domestic small caps took the lead by a wide margin over the past week while emerging markets turned in a solid rebound, although this group is still the worst performer from a trailing monthly perspective: 

// // Domestic Sector Review

The Energy sector saw the biggest rebound over the past week, although this corner of the market remains at the very bottom of the barrel from a trailing monthly perspective: 

  // // Foreign Equity Review

On the international front, Brazil and Russia posted the biggest losses for a third week in a row in light of 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)', -1.49, -12.24], ['Russia (RSX)', -7.9, -29.05], ['India (EPI)', -1.3, -4.86], ['China (FXI)', 1.17, 5.3], ['Japan (EWJ)', 0.44, -0.26], ['Australia (EWA)', 0, -5.9], ['Germany (EWG)', -0.46, 1.59], ['United Kingdom (EWU)', 0.95, -2.84], ]); 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('visualization105750')). draw(data, options); } google.setOnLoadCallback(drawVisualization); Alternatives Review

Commodities

Silver and oil were the biggest losers over the past week amid a broad-based rebound on Wall Street: 

// //

Currencies

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar resumed its ascent and turned in the best performance for the week, while also retaining its definitive lead over the past month as well: 

  // //

*All data as of market close 12/18/2014.

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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.

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