The markets have started the week off on a positive note, though investors are waiting to see how the highly publicized G20 meeting goes this weekend. President Trump is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi at the summit and discuss the ongoing trade war. In addition, investors were affected by comments about the interest rate in a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) has spent the last two days in a slightly bullish mode, making its way off the Thanksgiving week selloff. Technical traders continue to focus on the inability for the SPY to move back above the 200-day moving average despite a few multi-week rally attempts.
The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ), which remains in a short-term downtrend, has also started the week by pushing higher thanks to recovery bounces in names like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and other big tech names like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). Though it has been lower for almost the last two months, the QQQ still boasts a gain of about 5% on the year.
Healthcare (NYSE: XLV) is one of the better performing sectors this week, with gains of just over 1%. Technical traders remain focused on this sector, as it has been one to withstand much of the selling pressure seen in the broad-based markets. For the year, the XLV remains higher by just over 10%.
Gold (NYSE: GLD) and Gold Mining stocks (NYSE: GDX) have had a small setback this week so far as comments about further tariffs helped push the dollar higher, weighing on the precious metal. The GDX has fallen over 2% this week thus far, making it one of the underperforming areas of the market this year with losses totaling almost 20%.
Finally, Utility (NYSE: XLU) stocks have continued to remain near yearly highs and this week have pushed even closer to new highs. The XLU is higher by 4% this year so far and has shown resilience in the face of rising interest rates and a volatile market.