U.S. stocks finished the week on a very good note as a rash of
solid earnings reports helped to boost equity sentiment heading
into the weekend. Thanks to this, the Dow rose by about 1.6%, while
the S&P 500 added 1.7% and the Nasdaq gained 1.5% in Friday
trading.
Among the stars in Friday trading were the big banks, as JP
Morgan crushed analyst earnings expectations despite the
multibillion dollar trading loss earlier in the quarter. The
company saw its stock rise by about 6% as a result of the beat,
helping to carry other large banking institutions to huge gains on
the day as well.
Thanks to the risk on trade, investors saw the U.S. dollar
decline slightly, pushing the benchmark U.S. dollar index down to
about $83.33 on the day. Meanwhile, Treasury bonds did see yields
rise, as the 10 year gained two basis points to finish at a 1.49%
payout (see
Developed Asia Pacific ETF Investing 101
).
Commodities also surged on the day, led by decent days in the
metals and energy markets as investors piled into all types of
natural resources. Soft and grain products also rose on the day,
led by a 3.9% gain in cotton and a 2.2% jump in the coffee markets
during Friday trading.
Despite the positive day in the markets, many ETFs saw minimal
levels of volume. Commodity products traded, roughly, half as much
as usual while a number of major U.S. sector products also had
similarly light days of volume. Big movers on the volume front were
few and far between as a result, as a few sector funds and a
handful of forex and commodity ETFs led the way in terms of
outsized volume during the session.
In particular, ETF investors saw a big day of volume in the
iShares MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index Fund (
SCZ
).
This product generally does volume of about 340,000 shares a day
but saw more than 1.1 million shares move hands during Friday
trading (read
Seven Biggest International Equity ETFs
).
Despite this bump in volume, SCZ lost a little on the day while
its large cap counterparts tracking broad international markets
actually gained more than 1.4% in the session. It should also be
noted that volume was pretty spread out in the fund although we
have been seeing more interest in this ETF during recent trading
sessions.
Another product which was pretty popular among investors today
was the
PowerShares DB Base Metals ETF (
DBB
)
. This product usually does about 105,000 shares in volume but
experienced a spike to just under 600,000 shares today (read
Copper Mining ETFs Head-to-head
).
While this increase in volume was impressive, investors should
note that block trading dominated the fund during Friday trading.
In fact, 70% of the trading came during two block trades, both of
which were in the afternoon part of the session.
Although the volume may have been concentrated, investors should
note that solid base metal performances propelled the product to
the green during the day. DBB added about 1.5% during today's
session, although it has lost about 6.2% from a year-to-date
look.
(see more in the
Zacks
ETF Center
)
PWRSH-DB B METL (DBB): ETF Research Reports
ISHARS-MSCI SC (SCZ): ETF Research Reports
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment
Research
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks
Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the
Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report