As the markets begin the new month it appears as if sellers want to take control. Since the Brexit debacle the sellers have been hiding. Nearly every day has been up or sideways holding near the highs. Tuesday this week was the first sign of any decent attempt to push the markets lower by the sellers. While its early to tell if this continues, many of the index ETF's have suffered so far this week so our ETF update will focus in on those.
Starting with the S&P 500 (SPY ), which was able to break to new highs early in the session on Monday, but shortly after, the sellers took control and pushed the SPY lower through Tuesday. For the week the SPY is only down less than 1% but it's a 2 day move we haven't seen since brexit.
The Nasdaq 100 (QQQ ) has been able to hold its own though. Monday it was the only market to boast a gain as it broke to new highs, but Tuesday the selling pressure was just too much. The Nasdaq 100 fell right in line with the other broad indices with its move lower.
Part of the slide in the broad markets can be attributed to the waterfall like drop recently seen in the price of oil. The US Oil fund (USO ) has been sliding faster and faster off its cliff taking many of the oil refiners along for the ride. Following the high set back in June, the USO has fallen almost 25%. It has done so at a rapid pace too which has many bulls looking for a bounce. Wednesday the oil inventory reports could give the bulls just the ammunition they have been looking for.
Retail so far this week has suffered its worst 2 day decline in over a month with most of those losses coming on Tuesday (down 2.52%). Volume has been above average so far this week as the retail sector begins to take its place in reporting earnings.
Lastly is the gold mining index (GDX ) which finds itself, once again at all time highs. With volume being consistent and of course some help from Gold (GLD ), there just seems to be no stopping the gold miners this year.