Last Friday's brexit news has spilled over into this week. The markets have been on a wild ride so far with Monday causing more selling pressure, followed by a rally on Tuesday that recovered all of Monday's action. To break it down for you let's take a look at the market ETF's and some of the sectors in this week's ETF update.
The S&P 500 (SPY ) has done a complete 180 this week so far. Monday's decline was immediately erased Tuesday with a 1.80% gain. Buyers waited patiently and seem to have taken their chances at a short term; discounted market as trading volume was three times above average.
The Nasdaq 100 (QQQ ) performed basically the same way only stronger. The QQQ shot up 2.19% Tuesday as buyers ran back to the high beta, Nasdaq names. Traders have been speculating that this is more a case of shorts covering than new buyers entering. It is certainly possible due to the above average volume.
The safe haven trade (GLD ) has seen some weakness this week so far. This seems normal considering the market rally Tuesday along with the strengthening dollar (UUP ). The weak days continue to be soft, with very little losses. Considering Gold is trading near highs, it is easy to imagine that any long investors aren't scared by a small 1% pullback.
Oil (USO ) has been in a strong and consistent uptrend since February of this year... Until now. The oil markets have been unable to weather the Brexit news either. What was a series of higher highs has now turned into a few lower highs which have the technical traders concerned that Oil is headed lower. Longer term investors haven't thrown in the towel yet given that volume and price seem to just be slowing. With higher volume you may be able to convince others that an intermediate top is in.
Lastly, we'll comment on what is usually a very boring sector, Utilities (XLU ). Utility stocks are generally seen as a low beta, dividend arena that investors can park money when they want out of the higher beta names. This historical fact can be seen in real time by looking at the XLU. The Brexit news caused a breakout to new 52 week highs and it has been higher every day since. Seeing money move into Utilities is generally a good hint of the public's perception of future prices in the market.
Going forward investors can continue to expect higher volatility. All of the volatility (VXX ) ETF's have been an incredibly wild ride lately and there's no reason to think that will stop anytime soon.