ETFs Wait for Today's Greek Outcome

Major indexes and index ETFs finished mixed yesterday in anticipation of today’s Greece outcome, as the S&P 500 lost .09%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased .03%, the NASDAQ Composite added .02%, while the Russell 2000 Index lost .5%.  Major index ETFs followed along as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) lost .13%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) gained .05%, the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained .25%, and the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) lost .45%.

Today was an interesting day on Wall Street as the Retail Sales report missed its forecasts, while small businesses were not happy about the flat Small Business Optimism Index report.  China’s potential new leader, Xi Jinping, visited the White House yesterday, and although yesterday’s meeting did not yield any formal pacts, the outcome of this meeting could set the tone for US-China relations for quite some time, a tone which could drastically affect US-China trade and international relations for many years.  Meanwhile the Bank of Japan intervened in its Yen in an attempt to force it down and stimulate growth, while gold ETFs finally caught up with the Greece drama with a half a percent decline.

Markets and ETFs were perhaps really waiting to react to the final outcome of Greece and the Eurozone crisis; financial sector ETFs felt the burn yesterday of Moody’s credit downgrades Monday night, however all fingers point to Europe today, as the EU is scheduled to vote on the bailout package which Greece has bent over backwards produce.  The Euro might be saved for now, but the carnage in Greece is likely beyond repair for quite some time, no matter how much bailout money is shelled out.

Today is a monster day not only because of the EU decision, but also because the Fed will hold its FOMC minutes, and major economic reports including the Homebuilders index and industrial production reports are due out today.

Bottom Line: Markets and ETFs are in waiting for developments later today as the EU will vote on the Greek debt plan and more US economic indicators will be released.  One must wonder how long and how patient each of us will have to be to see any kind of relief from the historic economic troubles of our time.

Disclaimer: Wall Street Sector Selector trades a wide variety of ETFs and positions can change at any time.