While the market staged a decent late-day bounce today, it still closed in the red, making it the third straight day of losses to start the month of December. Â This is the first three-day losing streak to start December since 2002.
Below is a look at the month-to-date, quarter-to-date and year-to-date performance of various asset classes using ETFs traded on US exchanges. Â As shown, both domestically and abroad, equity ETFs are down so far this month. Â International markets have gotten hit especially hard, including Brazil (-5.2%), Italy (-3.4%) and France (-3%). Â In the US, smallcaps are down the most, while Industrials, Health Care and Consumer Discretionary are the sectors that have underperformed. Â Fixed income ETFs are down too as interest rates have risen. Â The only asset class that is up month-to-date is energy, with oil up 4.24% and natural gas up 1.1%.
Investors have been selling the sectors that are up the most in 2013 over the last three days. Â Below is a scatter chart comparing month-to-date (December) and year-to-date performance numbers for the ten S&P 500 sectors. Â As you can clearly see, there is a trend of underperformance so far in December for 2013's best performing sectors, while 2013's laggards have held up relatively well to start the month. Â Typical profit-taking within a long-term uptrend so far. Â Let's see how long this continues.
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