Encouraging Retail Sales

Summary

• Retail spending on the rise.
• Light at the end of the tunnel on COVID-19?
• A biotech ETF makes big gains in our Quant Model.

Monday, February 22, 2021 - As we approach the close of February, news headlines remind us that it was about a year ago that the Coronavirus cases began to rapidly spread domestically and inevitably grip the nation in the teeth of the pandemic. With COVID-19 cases now trending downward and vaccinations being increasingly distributed, there may be light at the end of the pandemic tunnel albeit not soon enough. Next up in the pandemic fight is the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has been submitted for FDA approval and will hopefully accelerate vaccine availability and distribution, if approved.

During the holiday week, the U.S. equity markets balanced positive economic reports and caution regarding current equity valuation levels. With perhaps a sign of what is to come in consumer spending, Retail Sales reported a +5% increase in January. Led by the Financial and Energy sectors, major U.S. equity indices turned in mixed performance for the week.

The DJIA eked out a gain of 35.92 points (.11%) to close at 31,494.32, the S&P 500 dropped 28.12 points (.71%) to 3,906.71 and the NASDAQ gave back 221.01 points (1.57%) to close the week at 13,874.46.

ETFG Quant Movers - Those ETFs who have had the largest weekly change in their respective, overall ETFG Quant ratings.

ETFG Weekly Quant Winners: The three biggest gainers in their ETFG Total Quant Scores were found in the Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC) which reached 59.10 up 11.06 points, the Alerian Energy Infrastructure ETF (ENFR) which closed at 53.29 up 10.51 points and the iShares International Preferred Stock ETF (IPFF) that picked up 10.44 points to an ETFG Total Quant Score of 59.90.

ETFG Weekly Quant Losers: The three biggest drops in their respective ETF Quant Total Scores were found in the ProShares Decline of the Retail Store ETF (EMTY) which gave back 11.63 points to 37.89, the iShares India 50 ETF (INDY) which has had a lot of movement recently and gave back 8.01 points to 35.63 and finally the AGFiQ US Market Neutral Momentum Fund (MOM) which wrapped the week at an ETFG Total Quant Score of 33.67 down 7.89 points for the week.

Thanks for reading ETF Global Perspectives and have a great week!

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