COMMENTARY:
- The S&P500 rose this week up 1.74%. Some of the economic drivers were; stronger corporate earnings expectations, projected GDP growth, retreated US government yields, and softer-than-expected inflation data.
- Communication Services led the way, up 3.1%. Netflix raged 13.9% on Tuesday after it released Q4’24 earnings and posted double the expected subscriber growth. Paramount Global and Warner Brothers were both up 7.7% for the week.
- Healthcare rebounded this week, up 2.95%. Moderna gained 22% on the news it is to receive an additional ~$600mm from the US Government for vaccine research. Abbot Laboratories (+10.2%) and Eli Lilly (+8.2%) also contributed.
- Ten of the eleven GICS sectors within the S&P were winners this week, with four sectors beating the broad market S&P500 return, as noted above.
- Energy fell 2.8% for the period, with only three of the 22 constituents in the index having positive returns. Halliburton (-7.0%) and Devon Energy (-5.2%) were a drag on performance this week.
ETF TIDBITS
This week Nuveen launched a pair of funds offerings on municipal bond investing. Nuveen Municipal Income ETF (NUMI). This fund uses municipal bonds to seek income & the Nuveen High Yield Municipal Income ETF (NHYM), opts for more high-yield exposure.
Horizon Investments debuted two exchange-traded funds this week. The Horizon Expedition Plus ETF (HBTA) is an actively managed fund that employs options strategies to generate higher volatility than the broad U.S. large-cap equity market and the Horizon Landmark ETF (BENJ) is an active total return strategy designed to fit an investor’s short-term equity exposure.
