Art's Charts

Global Overview of 2018 with Seven PerfCharts - On Trend Preview

Arthur Hill

Arthur Hill

Chief Technical Strategist, TrendInvestorPro.com

... Today's show, On Trend, provides a review of 2018, which is the year of few winners (so far). With less than two weeks before yearend, I would not expect too much to change. The show starts with seven PerfCharts to focus on seven different groups around the globe. These include asset class ETFs, international indexes, commodities, currencies and US stocks. Today's commentary shows these charts with links and symbols that chartists can use going forward.

The first chart shows 12 different ETFs covering different asset classes. It is lopsided toward the US because there are five "assets" based on US stocks. The Russell 2000 (blue) is down three times more than the S&P 500 SPDR (red). SPY and IWM include dividends and this is total return data. Even though stocks are down, the 20+ YR T-Bond ETF (TLT) and the 7-10 YR T-Bond ETF (IEF) are also down, which is rather unusual.

Asset Class ETFs:
SPY,IWM,EEM,VEU,DBC,GLD,TLT,IEF,EWRE,RHS,RYU,UUP


The next chart shows 12 international indexes with ten down and two up. The Russian Trading System Index ($RTSI) and S&P 500 (without dividends) are down the least, while the German DAX Index ($DAX) and Shanghai Composite ($SSEC) are down the most. The Bovespa ($BVSP) and India Nifty 50 Index ($NIFTY) are bucking the selling pressure this year.

Global Stock Indexes:
$SPX,$TSX,$DAX,$CAC,$GBDOW,$NIKK,$SSEC,$AORD,$KOSPI,$NIFTY,$BVSP,$RTSI


The US Dollar ETF (UUP) is the king of the currency ETFs in 2018, and the only gainer.

Currency ETFs:
UUP,FXC,FXE,FXF,FXS,FXB,CYB,FXY,FXA,BZF,INR,CEW


All seven Bloomberg commodity groups are down year-to-date.

Commodity Group Indexes:
$BCOMEN,$BCOMLI,$BCOMSO,$BCOMAG,$BCOMGR,$BCOMPR,$BCOMIN


Performance improves when looking at individual commodities. Palladium, natural gas, wheat and corn are up this year. Meanwhile, copper, platinum, oil and lumber are down sharply.

Continuous Futures:
$COPPER,$PALL,$PLAT,$GOLD,$SILVER,$WTIC,$NATGAS,$WHEAT,$SOYB,$LUMBER,$CORN,$GASO

The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) is the only one of the major index ETFs showing a year-to-date gain.

Major index ETFs:
SPY,RSP,MDY,IJR,IWM,QQQ,DIA,IWC


The EW Utilities ETF (burgundy) is the big winner among the equal-weight sectors. The EW Technology ETF (magenta) and the EW Healthcare ETF (purple) are still holding up with small gains this year. The EW Finance ETF (green), EW Industrials ETF (light blue), EW Materials ETF (black) and EW Energy ETF (teal) are down double digits year-to-date.

Equal-weight Sector ETFs:
RSP,RCD,RYF,RYT,RGI,RTM,RYE,RYH,RHS,RYU,EWRE


On Trend on Youtube

Topics for Tuesday, December 18th:

  • Global Asset Overview with 7 PerfChart Groups
  • New High to New Low in a Short Period
  • Expansion of New Lows from October to December
  • Underperformers Throughout 2018
  • Three Themes Affecting the Financial Markets
  • Click here to Watch


- Arthur Hill, CMT

Senior Technical Analyst, StockCharts.com

Book: Define the Trend and Trade the Trend
Twitter: Follow @ArthurHill


Arthur Hill
About the author: , CMT, is the Chief Technical Strategist at TrendInvestorPro.com. Focusing predominantly on US equities and ETFs, his systematic approach of identifying trend, finding signals within the trend, and setting key price levels has made him an esteemed market technician. Arthur has written articles for numerous financial publications including Barrons and Stocks & Commodities Magazine. In addition to his Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation, he holds an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University in London. Learn More