Markets kept up their winning streak in Tuesday's session as
quality earnings reports helped to buoy equities once again. The
Dow rose by 0.4%, the S&P 500 added half a percent to finish
over 1,400, while the Nasdaq gained 0.9% in the solid session.
In terms of sectors, basic materials were a clear winner in
Tuesday trading, while consumer staples and health care again led
on the downside. Investors also saw strength in a number of banking
and technology firms, helping to push close to 60% of the market
over their SMA 200 levels.
Thanks to this additional day of solid equity performance,
investors fled bonds in droves, pushing yields up on a number of
'safe haven' government debt options while the dollar remained flat
against a variety of global currencies. Meanwhile, commodities
continued to rise, as metals and energy led on the upside, but
softs and grains struggled (also see
Forget Petrobras with These Brazil ETFs
).
ETF trading was once again light, with many top products seeing
volume levels well below their averages. However, investors did see
an outsized level of interest in a number of sector funds, bond
ETFs, and a few international products as well during Tuesday's
session.
In particular, investors saw another big day for the
iShares MSCI Sweden Index Fund (
EWD
)
. This product usually does about 205,000 shares in a normal day
although volume today came in at 891,000 shares (read
Three Resilient European ETFs
).
This boost in volume was far more than what other Nordic
countries saw on the day, although many others did see more volume
than usual as well. Block trading did dominate the early part of
the session, while the fund is now at a three month high although
it did finish pretty much flat for the day.
It is also worth noting that the fund has seen almost $23
million more in AUM over the past month which could be another
reason for the bump up in volume over the past few weeks.
Another fund which was more popular than usual was in the health
care space, specifically with the
ProShares Ultra Health Care ETF (
RXL
)
. This leveraged long fund usually does just about 3,400 shares in
volume in a normal day but saw today's trading reach 46,000 shares
(read
Health Care ETFs & The Fate of Obamacare
).
This boost in volume wasn't just in the leveraged space either,
as a number of other health care ETFs traded more shares than usual
during the session. However, none saw the sheer volume magnitude
increase that RXL saw, although it should noted that a number of
other funds saw volumes at least 5x normal, even though it was
pretty much a flat day in the broad health care market.
(see more in the
Zacks ETF
Center
)
ISHARS-SWEDEN (EWD): ETF Research Reports
PRO-ULT HLTHCR (RXL): ETF Research Reports
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