Recent Financial Sector Component Performance
By Bill Luby on March 31, 2009 | More Posts By Bill Luby | Author's Website
Back in early December, in Breaking Down the Financial Sector Post-Lehman
, I contrasted the broad-based KBW Bank Index ETF (KBE) with several other KBW financial sector ETFs, notably KRE (KRE) (KBW regional banking index), KCE (KCE) (KBW capital markets index) and KIE (KIE) (KBW insurance index.) At that time, the regional banking index was holding up better than its siblings, but had begun to show some weakness.
Fast forward almost four months and in the chart below I contrast the performance of the same quartet of ETFs since the November 21st bottom (S&P 500 (^GSPC) 741), when things probably looked darkest for the financial sector.
Notice that now the capital markets group (with top holdings of Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), CME Group (CME), Charles Schwab (SCHW) and State Street (STT)) is sporting gains of over 20% since this period, while insurance stocks are almost back to breaking even and both banking ETFs, the regional and money center variants, have been bring up the rear, moving almost in lockstep as of late and showing losses in excess of 25% for the period in question.
All four groups have bounced impressively off of the March lows, but once again, it is the capital markets group that has showed the most strength, with State Street (STT) leading the way.

[source: BigCharts]
Gold, Silver, Oil, Natural Gas: Sideways Trading Action Likely
Monday’s Forex Outlook
Cartoon: I Feel Bullish…
Video: 11/09 Retailers Battle Over Discount DVDs
Many Western Oil Producers Like Exxon, Shell And Eni Are Reluctantly Returning To Iraq’s Oilfields
Slovakia Industrial Output Drops At Slower Pace In September - 6 mins ago
*Lithuania Oct. CPI Down 0.4% On Month - 13 mins ago
*Lithuania Jan.-Sept. Trade Deficit At LTL 3.8 Bln - 17 mins ago
*Cyprus Oct. HICP Drops 1% On Year Vs. 1.2% Fall In September - 22 mins ago
*Cyprus Sept. Trade Deficit At EUR 409.37 Mln Vs. EUR 368.58 Mln Deficit In August - 24 mins ago


