Tech ETFs Lead The Week
At market turns, you’ll see dramatic
contrasts between near-term and longer-term relative
strength percentile scores. That stands out clearly in the
tech-focused ETFs.
The Software HOLDR
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) now has a
one-week RS of 97, meaning it outperformed 97% of all exchange-traded funds and
mutual funds in the TradingMarkets FundScanner
database for the past week. That compares to a one-month RS 13 (meaning it
underperformed 87% of all tradable and mutual funds for that month) and a
three-month RS of 32.
The Software HOLDR began trading on
Sept. 27, which explains the truncated price action and 50-day moving price and
volume averages in the following chart. The basket of such stocks as Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and PeopleSoft
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is
up 18.6% for the week.
The Internet Infrastructure HOLDR
(
IIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained 20.5%, the biggest gain for the past five days among the exchange-traded
funds. The basket includes such stocks as BEA Systems
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Exodus Communications
(
EXDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Inktomi
(
INKT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Among the other tech-focused
exchange-traded funds, the Dow Jones Internet iShares
(
IYV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has gained 16.6%
for the week, the Internet HOLDR
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 15.6%, the B2B Internet HOLDR
(
BHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
15.1%, the Broadband HOLDR
(
BDH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 13.0%, the Dow Jones
Telecommunications iShares
(
IYZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 10.6%, the Semiconductor HOLDR
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
8.2%, the Telecom HOLDR
(
TTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 7.9%, and the Biotech HOLDR
(
BBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 6.1%.
The defensives were treading water for
the week rather than giving up more ground following the prior week’s ferocious
outflows. The Dow Jones Healthcare iShares
(
IYH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) edged up 0.8% for the
week, the Pharmaceutical HOLDR
(
PPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 0.9%, and the Consumer Staples SPDR
(
XLP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was down 1.0%.
The biggest loss for the week was
recorded by the Basic Industries SPDR
(
XLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 7.8%. The Dow Jones Basic
Materials iShares
(
IYM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 6.5%, the Dow Jones Chemical iShares
(
IYD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
6.0%, and the Utilities HOLDR
(
UTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 5.4%.
The top field of all charts in this
commentary uses a logarithmic price scale and displays a 50-day price average in
red. 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.
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.