Weekly Commentary: Monetary Disorder 2019
Some of the sector gains have been nothing short of spectacular. This week’s 7.7% surge pushed y-t-d gains for the Bank (BKX) index to 13.7%. The Broker/Dealers (XBD) were up 5.3% this week – and 11.0% so far this year. The Nasdaq Bank index has a 2019 gain of 11.3% (up 4.9% this week). The Philadelphia Oil Services index surged 22.3% in 13 sessions. Biotechs (BTK) have jumped 16.1%.
Taking a deeper dive into y-t-d S&P500 sector performance, Energy leads the pack up 11.2%. Financials have gained 9.0%, Industrials 8.9%, Consumer Discretionary 8.4%, and Communications Services 7.9%. Last year’s leaders are badly lagging. The Utilities have gained only 0.4%, followed by Consumer Staples up 3.2% and Health Care gaining 4.2%.
Canadian stocks have gained 6.9% (“Best Start to Year Since 1980”). Mexico’s IPC Index has risen 6.3%. Major equities indices are up 6.1% in Germany, 7.6% in Italy, 6.2% in Spain, 3.6% in the UK and 3.1% in France. European Bank stocks have gained 5.3% (Italy’s banks up 5.1%). Brazil’s Ibovespa index has gained 9.3% and Argentina’s Merval 15.9%. Russian stocks are up 4.9%, lagging the 7.9% gain in Turkey. The Shanghai Composite has recovered 4.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index has rallied 4.8%, with the Hang Seng Financial Index up 5.1% to start the year. With WTI crude surging 19% y-t-d, the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index is up a quick 10.4% to begin 2019.
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