MutualFunds.com provides a snapshot of the performance of some key mutual funds and ETFs, trying to capture investor interest in specific areas of the financial markets. The report is aimed at providing a quick overview of the sectors, regions and asset classes that moved in a meaningful manner in the last 30 days. In addition, the report also highlights some of the key economic indicators for major geographies, reminding you to adjust your portfolios if required.
MutualFunds.com generates this report every fortnight. In order to select the mutual funds and ETFs highlighted in this report, MutualFunds.com uses a system to automatically scan through hundreds of relevant securities within different sectors, regions and asset classes. The system only picks up the best and worst performing securities for further manual analysis.
Performance Scorecard
Check out best and worst performers across different sectors, geographies and assset claases.
| Category | Monthly Performance | Mutual Funds | ETFs | 1-month Ret (%) |
| Sector | Internet and biotechnology based mutual funds outperformed this fortnight, while oil equipment services shares were hammered. When it came to ETFs, Natural gas and crypto-focused funds were among the best performers, while private equity stocks and China's internet stocks disappointed. | WWWFX: Kinetics Internet Fund | 7.33% | |
| OEPIX: Oil Equipment & Services UltraSector ProFund | -18.93% | |||
| BOIL: ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas | 25.57% | |||
| PEX: ProShares Global Listed Private Equity ETF | -22.73% | |||
| U.S. Broad | Technology and growth stocks managed to get ahead in the last 30 days, while small-caps and energy shares were largely down. | IVNQX: Invesco Nasdaq 100 Index Fund | 1.93% | |
| FISVX: Fidelity® Small Cap Value Index Fund | -8.68% | |||
| PLC: Principal U.S. Large | 10.98% | |||
| SYV: SPDR® MFS Systematic Value Equity ETF | -19.25% | |||
| Fixed Inc | Long-term Treasuries gained, as inflation worries mounted. Chinese bonds and clean energy funds were hammered. | IRBYX: Ivy Pictet Targeted Return Bond Fund | 6.94% | |
| VGSBX: VY® BrandywineGLOBAL | -8.11% | |||
| TLO: SPDR® Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF | 8.33% | |||
| IPE: SPDR® Portfolio TIPS ETF | -14.45% | |||
| Alts | Ethereum and natural gas-focused funds were among the best performers, while silver and oil & gas services experienced heavy losses. | ATRAX: Catalyst Systematic Alpha Fund | 9.58% | |
| ALPIX: Hatteras Alpha Hedged Strategies Instl | -33.00% | |||
| ETHE: Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH) | 34.84% | |||
| PXJ: Invesco Dynamic Oil & Gas Services ETF | -14.47% | |||
| Foreign | Argentina, the Netherlands and India shares saw strong gains this fortnight. At the other end of the spectrum were China and Denmark-focused funds. | EGIIX: Eaton Vance Greater India Fund | 4.92% | |
| UGPIX: ProFunds UltraChina | -27.56% | |||
| ARGT: Global X MSCI Argentina ETF | 6.91% | |||
| EDEN: iShares MSCI Denmark ETF | -33.33% |
Fund performance data for the period between July 6, 2021 and August 6, 2021.
Key Economic Indicators
Check out our quick take on the key economic indicators across North America, Europe and Asia.
| Economic Indicators | Comments |
| GDP | U.S. GDP grew by 6.5% in the second quarter, two percentage points lower than economists' expectations, although slightly higher than in the previous quarter. The output was boosted by a strong consumer, but property investments were weak. |
| Monetary Policy | The U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled it is ready to start tapering its bond purchases as soon as next month. The central bank said the economy was growing strongly, while inflation was rising faster than expected, despite a labor market that is not recovering as quickly as expected. For now, the Fed kept ultra-low interest rates unchanged and its quantitative easing program in place. Eurozone annual inflation rose from 1.9% to 2.2% in July, shooting above the European Central Bank's target of close to but below 2%. However, policymakers said they are willing to tolerate higher inflation for a while, in the belief the rise in price is transitory. Core CPI of 0.7% remains well below ECB's target. The Bank of England maintained interest rates and its asset purchase facility unchanged, even as it warned that inflation could hit 4% this year. The bank indicated that an increase might come next year. |
| Employment | The number of unemployment claims remained near 800,000 in the fortnight ended July 30, signaling there is still slack in the labor market. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were less than 500,000 claims per two-week period. The U.S. unemployment rate fell from 7.8% to 7.5% in July, although that was below expectations of 7.4%. At the same time, the economy added 943,000 jobs, mirroring the strong report from the month before. Average hourly earnings grew by 0.4% compared with 0.3% expected by analysts. The Japanese unemployment rate fell from 3% to 2.9% in July, remaining below pre-pandemic levels of around 2.5%. |
| Manufacturing Sector | U.S. Manufacturing PMI rose from a downwardly revised 62.1 to 63.1, hitting a record high, as demand has been on the rise. Durable goods orders growth fell from 3.2% to 0.8% in June. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declined from 63.4 to 62.6 in July, in line with analysts' expectations. The index is still hovering near record highs. Japanese manufacturing PMI dropped from 52.4 to 52.2 in July. Japanese industrial production grew by 6.2% in June, better than expectations of 5% growth. In the prior month, industrial production declined by 6.5%. Chinese Manufacturing PMI fell from 50.9 to 50.4 in July. |
| Service Sector | The U.S. services sector remains optimistic about the re-opening of the economy, even though the index declined from 64.6 to 59.8. This is still one of the highest readings ever. Eurozone Services PMI has been improving over the past three months, as Europe has re-opened its economy, even as worries mount about the Delta variant of COVID-19, which could throw the continent into another lockdown. |
We provide this report on a fortnightly basis. To stay up to date with mutual fund market events, come back to our news page here.