Daily ETF Roundup: Jobs Report Boosts Markets

The first three trading days of 2013 are officially in the books, and markets have gotten off to quite the start. Though many had been fretting the fiscal cliff situation, Congress managed to come up with a last-minute deal that saved stocks from what would have likely been a harsh sell-off. Though yesterday saw major benchmarks slide sideways, encouraging hiring and jobs data lifted markets for today’s week-ending session [see also 101 ETF Lessons Every Financial Advisor Should Learn]. 

Today marked an impressive moment for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY, A) as it was able to gain 0.4% as the S&P had its highest closing point since December of 2007. The Dow Jones ETF (DIA, B) followed close behind with gains of 0.3% while the tech-heavy QQQ Fund (QQQ, A-) with losses of 0.3%. QQQ took cues from Apple (AAPL) which suffered a loss of nearly 2.8% for the day; AAPL accounts for more than 18.7% of QQQ.

Bond ETF Roundup 

The fixed income space was relatively quiet in comparison to equity markets for Friday’s trading day. The biggest gainer came from long-term Treasuries as (TLT, A-) chalked up gains of nearly 0.4%. Investment grade debts were the worst performer of the major categories as (LQD, A+) slipped a meager 0.05%.

Commodity Roundup

Natural gas has been all over the board in 2013 as it seems that this commodity has been the subject of much speculation. The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG, B+) was able to come away with a strong day as it jumped more than 2.6%. Gold was among the worst hard asset performers as the precious metal is still reeling from the possibility of the Fed ending their QE programs that have made the metal so popular in the first place.

In light of natural gas’ strong performance today, it should be no surprise to see UGAZ soar. This 3X leveraged product jumped more than 7.8% as momentum was finally restored to the key fossil fuel. Note that the fund traded over 764,000 shares today; its average daily volume falls around 482,000 [see Energy Bull ETFdb Portfolio]. 

Commodities were among the biggest movers on the day, as the DB Base Metals Fund was one of the worst performers. The fund surrendered more than 1% and traded a full 100,000 shares above its daily average. DBB gapped slightly lower upon opening and continued to lose momentum from there [see Commodity Guru ETFdb Portfolio]. 

Since inception, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) has never had a negative performance in a calendar year.

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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.

-- ETF Insider: Bulls Break Down The Gates at ETF Database (January 5, 2013) -- Gold Slowly Losing Steam: GLD Technical Take at CommodityHQ.com (January 5, 2013) -- Dividend Highlights/Lowlights for Jan. 4 at (January 4, 2013) -- Market Wrap-Up for Jan.4 (C, HRL, MSFT, ABT, GLD, more) at (January 4, 2013) -- Daily ETF Roundup: Fed Minutes Spook Stocks at ETF Database (January 3, 2013) -- Battle Metals vs. Miners: Gold Edition 2012 at CommodityHQ.com (January 3, 2013) ETF Database is not an investment advisor, and any content published by ETF Database does not constitute individual investment advice. The opinions offered herein are not personalized recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities. From time to time, issuers of exchange-traded products mentioned herein may place paid advertisements with ETF Database. All content on ETF Database is produced independently of any advertising relationships. Read the full disclaimer here.

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