December has been one mixed up month. The Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) is down around 1.1%, the Russell 2000 iShares (IWM) is up around 2% and the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) is up .30%. We can also see mixed results when looking at the Performance for 10 key industry group ETFs. The Retail SPDR (XRT) is flat, the Biotech SPDR (XBI) is up over 6% and the Metals & Mining SPDR (XME) is down over 7%. There is one interesting take away here though. Notice that the Regional Bank SPDR (KRE), REIT iShares (IYR) and Semiconductor SPDR (XSD) are up. Outside of biotech, these three are showing some upside leadership in December.
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About the author:
Arthur Hill, 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.
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