A Weak 4 Days Since the 4th
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 04:36PM The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen nearly 300 points since its most recent high reached intraday on Thursday. The index hasn't seen an up day since the July 4th holiday last Wednesday, and as shown below, the DIA ETF that tracks the Dow is down 2.17% since then. The S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) are down roughly 20 basis points more over the same time period.
The declines over the past four days have pushed US indices back into the red for the quarter. Only two of the ten sectors remain up for the quarter as well -- Consumer Staples (XLP) and Telecom (IYZ).
The declines have been much worse outside of the US, however. Italy (EWI) is down 7.71% over the past four trading days, while Spain (EWP) is down 9.67%. China (FXI), France (EWQ), Germany (EWG) and Russia (RSX) are all down more than 5%.
Commodities have pulled back significantly as well. Oil (USO), natural gas (UNG), gold (GLD) and silver (SLV) are all down 3-5%. The only place to hide has once again been Treasuries, as shown by the recent performance of ETFs like IEF and TLT.
If you're going to own stocks these days, it's best to stay domestic. Companies that generate the bulk of their revenues inside the US continue to crush the companies that get more than 50% of their sales outside of the country. And with earnings season coming up, we're about to hear a whole lot about how weak Europe and Asia have been. Over at Bespoke Premium, our Interactive Revenues Database allows you to find the domestic vs. international sales exposure for every stock in the Russell 1,000 and S&P 500. If you want to stay on top of the geographical sales play, become a member today.
