Tag Archives: health care etf

ETFs To Watch This Week Include ETFs Involved In Oil and The Yen

MarketsMuse blog update highlights the must watch ETFs for the first week of June. The ETFs range from health care, to oil, the Japanese Yen. This update is courtesy of the Benzinga’s author, David Fabian, and his article, “Healthcare, Yen And Oil ETFs To Watch This Week“, with an excerpt from the article below.

The summer months are often characterized by lower volume and heightened volatility, which seems to be a trend that has already established itself this year.

Several important events this week have the potential to impact the market including: personal spending, motor vehicle sales and non-farm payroll data.

Here are the key ETFs to watch for the week of June 1:

Health Care Select Sector SPDR XLV 0.25%

Healthcare stocks have continued to show tremendous strength this year and XLV has been one of the leading sector components of the S&P 500 Index. This ETF is made up of 57 large-cap stocks in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical services fields. Top holdings include well-known companies such as Johnson & Johnson JNJ 1% and Pfizer Inc PFE 0.9%.

CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust FXY 0.1%

After appearing to stabilize through the first four months of the year, the Japanese yen currency has once again plunged markedly lower versus the U.S. dollar in May. FXY tracks the daily price movement of the yen versus the U.S. dollar and is down 3.64 percent so far this year.

United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) USO 3.83%

Crude oil prices jumped 4 percent on Friday and managed to recoup the majority of the slide this commodity experienced in May. USO tracks the daily price movement of West Texas Intermediate Light Sweet Crude Oil futures and is the most heavily traded oil ETF.

To continue reading about why oil, the yen, and health care are must watch ETF categories according Benzinga reporter, David Fabian, click here.

 

Largest US Health Insurer Creates Spark In Health Care ETFs

MarketsMuse blog update profiles the largest US health insurer’s stellar first-quarter and the effects it has on the market with ETFs such as iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (NYSEARCA: IHF) receiving a huge boost from the insurer. This MarketsMuse update is courtesy of SeekingAlpha’s article from Zacks Funds, “Play UnitedHealth Q1 Strength With This Health Care ETF”  with excerpts from the article below. 

The largest U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) reported blockbuster first-quarter 2015 results. It topped our estimates on both the top and the bottom lines as well as raised its full-year outlook.

UnitedHealth Q1 Results in Focus

Earnings per share came in at $1.46, well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.33 and 32.7% better than the year-ago earnings. Revenues rose 13% year over year to $35.76 billion, edging past the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $34.73 billion. The robust performance was driven by rising enrollments and strength in the Optum Health Services business.

Market Impact

The market has welcomed UNH’s earnings beat and its strong outlook. Shares of UNH jumped as much as 4.3% following its earnings announcement on elevated volumes, making it the biggest percentage gainer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index for the day.

Since UnitedHealth is the first insurer to report earnings and a bellwether, the result has spread optimism across the broad health insurance sector with stocks of other players in the space in green at the close on the day. Some of these players include Aetna (NYSE:AET) – up 3.2%, Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) – up 2.4%, Cigna (NYSE:CI) – up 2% and Humana (NYSE:HUM) – up 0.5%.

Given UnitedHealth’s strength to lift the health insurer corner of the broad health care space and the solid run up in its share price, one ETF – iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (NYSEARCA:IHF) – could be worth a look for investors seeking to ride out the recent surge. It has the largest allocation to this big giant and looks to be in focus in the coming days with room for upside.

Bottom Line

UNH’s earnings beat sent the stock higher on the day, thus becoming the cornerstone for other stocks in the space. A merger and acquisition frenzy and encouraging industry trends bode well for the health insurer stocks and the related ETFs.

Other ETFs like Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLV),Vanguard Health Care ETF (NYSEARCA:VHT)iShares U.S. Healthcare ETF (NYSEARCA:IYH) and Fidelity MSCI Health Care Index ETF (NYSEARCA:FHLCalso have a decent exposure to UnitedHealth in the range of 3-4%. These funds also have the potential to move higher on UNH strength in the coming days but with less momentum.

To read the entire article on health care ETFs from SeekingAlpha, click here.