Cash Moves To Defensives, Basic Materials
Money flowed into defensive and
commodity-based stocks, lifting those exchange-traded funds Tuesday after the
Fed disappointed by leaving rates unchanged. The tradable tech funds again took
it on the chin.
The Dow Jones Basic Materials iShares
(
IYM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) moved ahead 4.3%, the day’s biggest gain among the exchange-traded
funds. The Basic Industries SPDR
(
XLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 3.2%.
Among the two ETFs’ major components,
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 3.7%, Dow Chemical
(
DOW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 6.5%, International Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
4.5%, Union Carbide
(
UK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 6.0%.
Among the defensives and yield
surrogates, the Utility HOLDR
(
UTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 1.9%, the Dow Jones Healthcare
iShares
(
IYH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 1.8%, the Pharmaceutical HOLDR
(
PPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 1.7%.
Despite the miserly pace struck by the
Fed, the financial ETFs didn’t do half bad. The Dow Jones Financial iShares
(
IYF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 1.1%. The Financial Services iShares
(
IYG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and the Regional Bank HOLDR
(
RKH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) tread water. The Financial SPDR
(
XLF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gave up 1.0%.
On the downside, the Internet HOLDR
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell 8.8%, breaking into new low ground. The Internet Infrastructure HOLDR
(
IIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lost 8.7%, the Dow Jones Internet iShares
(
IYV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 8.6%, the Broadband HOLDR
(
BDH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
7.8%, the Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock
(
QQQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 7.4%, the Telecom HOLDR
(
TTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
6.5%, the Morgan Stanley Internet Index Fund
(
MII |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 6.0%, the B2B HOLDR
(
BHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.7%.
The top field of all charts in this
commentary uses a logarithmic price scale and displays a 50-day price average in
red. In cases where the displayed security has traded long enough, the top field also
will exhibit a 200-day moving price average in black. In the second field, a
blue relative strength line represents the displayed security’s price
performance relative to the S&P 500. The third field displays vertical daily
volume bars in black with a 50-day moving average in blue for volume.
If you’re new to exchange-traded funds,
be sure to visit TradingMarkets’ Knowledge Center,
dedicated to explaining the basics of trading and active investing in ETFs and
mutual funds. Just click on the Funds tab
near the top of this page, then click on the Knowledge
Center tab.Â
You also will find lessons on trading
exchange-traded funds in the Stocks Education area of TradingMarkets.com. In
particular, check out my three-part series on trading ETFs, starting with
Average Crossovers. I also recommend newcomers read my tutorial,
HOLDRs: Unique Opportunity And Risk.