October ETF Performance Report

October was largely a mixed month for stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs), marked by both encouraging high points and gloomy low ones.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally crossed a milestone 10,000 points this month. Though the mark was greeted with cheers on the trading floor, it didn’t stay there for long, and ultimately closed the month below 10,000 and ended the month flat. The S&P 500 lost 2% and the Nasdaq fell 3.6%.

October saw a weakening dollar. This was to the benefit of commodity ETFs, including SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), which gained 3.7% for the month. United States Oil (NYSEArca: USO) gained 8.6%.

Earnings season was encouraging. The number of better-than-expected reports outnumbered the worse-than-expected ones by a ratio of about 6:1. But there are still big concerns about consumers: spending dropped 0.5% in September. As long as consumers aren’t spending, the recovery could be long and difficult.

To view our full performance report, click here.

For full disclosure, Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of GLD.

Comments

[Pax Americana:]

Still find it quite remarkable, the power of the American Dollar vis-a-vis its influence on everything under the sun , commodities and the like, am of the opinion that its life as a Reserve Currency, has a Decade or two left to run.

Nov 02 09:30 AM

[rick12345:]

Construction spending up, pending home sales up, PMI positive, Ford posts $1b profit. How stupid of me to think that the US economy is expanding. Of course the market will continue to concentrate on sensational headlines such as "Retail faces uncertainty as CIT enters bankruptcy" (AP Business - Yahoo Finance)

Nov 02 10:18 AM