December ranks in the upper half of months in terms of historical upside for performance for U.S. equities.
The arrival of the final month of the year could also bring opportunity for those investors willing to employ exchange traded funds on a tactical basis.
Sector-level ideas for this month include the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE), the largest equity-based energy ETF, soaring. XLE is already this year’s best-performing member of the sector SPDR suite.
“Craig Johnson, senior technical research analyst at Piper Jaffray, is bullish on energy stocks at these levels, and said his top ETF pick would be the Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE), which rose over 8 percent in November. The XLE jumped 5 percent Wednesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut oil production by about 4.5 percent, the first deal of its kind reached in eight years,” reports CNBC.
Some analysts expect the energy sector will become a positive contributor to earnings growth for the S&P 500 by the first quarter of 2017 due to a combination of higher expected oil prices and easier comparisons to weak earnings in 2016.
Rivals to XLE include the Vanguard Energy ETF (NYSEArca: VDE), iShares U.S. Energy ETF (NYSEArca: IYE) and the Fidelity MSCI Energy Index ETF (NYSEArca: FENY).
Investors should be aware that XLE and its aforementioned rivals allocated hefty portions of their lineups to the largest oil companies, including Dow components Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) along with Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), the largest oilfield services provider. In some cases Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest U.S. oil companies, combine for up to a third of these ETFs’ weights.
Risk-tolerant investors considering emerging markets positions may want to evaluate an ETF that has been drubbed in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise election victory: The iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWW).
“If investors are looking across the border, the beaten-up iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (EWW) is one trade at these levels, according to Zachary Karabell, head of global strategy at Envestnet,” according to CNBC. “The risk in owning the EWW looks attractive to Karabell as it’s gotten crushed in November, falling 14 percent on investors’ uncertainty about U.S.-Mexico trade and the plummeting Mexican peso.”
Investors who believe the Mexican peso may continue to depreciate but anticipate the markets will improve can look to currency-hedged ETF strategies to diminish the currency risks. For instance, the db X-trackers MSCI Mexico Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBMX) and the recently launched iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Mexico (NYSEArca: HEWW) provide exposure to the Mexico’s market without the added currency risk of a depreciating peso currency.
For more information on the energy sector, visit our energy category.