Sector ETF Perfomances: Utility ETFs Top The List
Marc Chandler | Sep 03, 2014 12:52AM ET
The US S&P 500 is at record highs. It has gained 8.4% for the year through August. This is among the best performers among the major markets. Spain's IBEX 35 has performed nearly as well, and Italy's FTSE Milan Index has trailed fractionally. However, Canada's Toronto Stock Index is easily the best performer in the G7, gaining almost 15% year-to-date.
Drilling down into the US equity performance, there is a Macromon blog. It shows the best performing ETF sectors in August and year-to-date.
In August, perhaps aided by the continued decline in US bond yields, utility ETFs did best. Energy ETFs may be have been dragged down by the decline in oil prices. They were the worst performers.
Consumer staples and discretionary sector ETFs did well. We are concerned that the composition of US growth may shift away from consumption in H2. The unexpected decline in July's personal consumption expenditures (-0.1% vs +0.2% consensus) may be a hint of what is to come.
Macromon also provided a graph of the year-to-date sector ETF performance. Health care, aided arguably by the Affordable Care Act, is the best performer, rising about 15.2%. Utilities are a close second at 14%.
The laggards include consumer discretionary (~3%), industrials (~3.4%) and consumer staples (5%). Financial sector ETFs (~6.9%) also lagged behind the S&P 500.
Of course, past performance is not indication of future returns. The comparative performances may still be useful for idea generation and the detection of investment themes.
Get The News You Want
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.