A relatively volatile week in the markets due to concerns over Greece and nervousness regarding Fed actions and potential interest rate hikes. At the end of it all, despite challenging the all-time highs on Thursday, the 2020 level in the SPX again acted as strong resistance and there was still no big change in the US markets with the SPX ending the week only slightly (0.75%) higher than last weeks close. We remain in the sideways market that we’ve been in for the past ~4 months:
Our “horses” were refreshed on Monday’s open but this did not do much for their performance with all portfolios ending down ~4% on the week – not good compared with the modest gain in the broader US market.
Even the US market representatives, the banking sectors KBE and KRE, did not keep up with the broader market. However, it is interesting to note that KRE (Regional Banks) fared better than the larger banks – presumably due to their lower exposure to International markets and associated political risk. The Banking sector is beginning to look relatively strong due to the fact that they are likely to benefit from higher interest rates going forward:
It is not obvious from the above but the big losers were the Asian markets, particularly the scaringly volatile China (Shanghai – ASHR) market that saw losses of up to 12% on the week. Surprisingly, the Russian market (RSX) was an above average performer on the week (up 2%). Pros and Cons of diversity!
David