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 | Life sciences and healthcare, as well as natural gas, are the best performers over the past month, while cannabis industry stocks have underperformed. | ETIHX: Eventide Healthcare & Life Sciences Fund | 14.52% | |
| AMREX: American Growth Cannabis Fund | -7.69% | |||
| BOIL: ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas | 53.39% | |||
| POTX: Global X Cannabis ETF | -13.36% | |||
| U.S. Broad | Technology stocks have been among the best performers over the past 30 days, while U.S. focused small-caps have posted rather disappointing returns. | NASDX: Shelton Capital Management Nasdaq | 2.39% | |
| FLCPX: Fidelity® SAI U.S. Large Cap Index Fund | -9.40% | |||
| RSXJ: VanEck Vectors Russia Small | 7.86% | |||
| PSCD: Invesco S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary ETF | -5.97% | |||
| Fixed Inc | Long-term U.S. Treasury bonds have recorded relatively strong returns over the past 30 days, while municipal bonds have delivered negative returns. | VEDIX: Vanguard Extended Duration Trs Idx InsPl | 2.27% | |
| HIABX: Hartford Total Return Bond HLS Fund | -4.13% | |||
| TLO: SPDR® Portfolio Long Term Treasury ETF | 23.40% | |||
| IPE: SPDR® Portfolio TIPS ETF | -11.65% | |||
| Alts | Natural gas, and ethereum cryptocurrency funds have outperformed in alternative strategies. Meanwhile, real estate and commodity focused funds have underperformed. | ALPIX: Hatteras Alpha Hedged Strategies Instl | 30.43% | |
| FCSSX: Fidelity® Series Commodity Strategy Fund | -28.32% | |||
| BOIL: ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas | 53.39% | |||
| PALL: Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF | -19.01% | |||
| Foreign | Denmark, India, and Chinese stocks have outperformed these past 30 days, while stocks in Brazil and Nigeria have underperformed. | WAINX: Wasatch Emerging India Fund® | 9.64% | |
| BCAKX: Baillie Gifford China A Shares Fund | -6.24% | |||
| EDEN: iShares MSCI Denmark ETF | 50.00% | |||
| UBR: ProShares Ultra MSCI Brazil Capped | -13.15% |
Fund performance data for the period between August 12, 2021 and September 10, 2021.
Key Economic Indicators
Check out our quick take on the key economic indicators across North America, Europe and Asia.
| Economic Indicators | Comments |
| Monetary Policy | The European Central Bank (ECB) has decreased its emergency bond purchases under its program to combat the effects of the pandemic, raising worries about a spike in inflation above its target of close but below 2%. However, the bank maintained its record low interest rates and noted that the current accommodative program will be kept for a while. ECB President reassured markets that the slowdown in bond purchases is not tapering, but rather "recalibrating." Indeed, the European consumer price index, a gauge of inflation, has reached a ten-year high in August, coming in at 3%, one percentage point above the goal of the ECB. While policymakers believe inflation will ease going into the next year, it has put them on guard as risks for high inflation are now materially higher. Expectations for a continued rise in inflation are underpinned by rising wages and lack of supply issues for certain products. Europe's core CPI, which excludes volatile items like food, energy, and tobacco, is up 1.6%, the highest level since at least 2013. |
| Consumer Spending | Germany's ZEW economic sentiment, a survey of 275 German institutional investment managers, stayed in expansion territory in September, but it is obvious the level of optimism is dissipating quickly. |
| Employment | The U.S. economy has added around 235,000 jobs in August, lower than analysts had expected. The key explanation for the disappointing jobs report is the Delta variant, which has especially hit the hospitality sector, typically a big employer. Other employment indicators are showing resilience. The unemployment rate has declined to 5.2%, while wages grew by 0.6%. |
| Manufacturing Sector | ISM's manufacturing PMI increased slightly in September and is well in expansion territory, indicating that purchasing managers remain optimistic about the economy. Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) has continued to drop in the month of August to 50.1, just slightly into expansion territory. Another indicator, Caixin manufacturing PMI, fell into contraction territory, showing how renewed restrictions to suppress the Delta variant are hitting the country's manufacturing sector. As this is a leading indicator, investors should expect a deterioration of economic activity in the coming months. |
| Service Sector | U.S. Services PMI has declined a few points to 61.7, but is still well above expansion territory. While optimism about demand is high, businesses are saying they are hurt by labor shortages and supply bottlenecks. |
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.