Last week was the worst for European stocks since 2008. The week saw the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the U.S. announcement of travel restrictions to Europe. WHO has now declared Europe the "epicentre" of the pandemic, which originated in China. Some EU states have witnessed a record number of one-day death tolls.
Germany is to levy controls on its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Luxembourg from Mar 16. The Czech government has launched stringent lockdown measures. The crisis has reached such a scary level that Austria is prohibiting gatherings of more than five people starting Mar 16. Bar, restaurant and public place lockdowns have been rampant.
Then, the ECB did not cut rates like many other global central banks. Market participants were anticipating a rate cut of 10 basis points. However, the bank announced stimulus to fight the coronavirus impact.
No wonder, European stocks joined the steep global stock selloff last week. Though stocks tried to recoup losses on Mar 13, Spain’s announcement of a state of emergency over the outbreak led them to trim gains. News of the United States declaring a national emergency also made matters worse.
The key Europe ETF Vanguard FTSE Europe Index Fund ETF Shares VGK lost about 16.4% in the past week against 8.9% losses of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ASX:SPY) . Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust FXE has lost 1.7% in the past week (as of Mar 13, 2020).
There were hardly any gainers in such bloodbath. Still, we highlight a few Europe ETF winners (ones that lost less than VGK) from the past week (per xtf.com)(read: Is the Acute ETF & Stock Selloff an 'Overreaction' or Justified?).
Pacer Trendpilot European Index ETF PTEU – Down 3.57%
The underlying Pacer Trendpilot European Index uses an objective, rules-based methodology implementing systematic trend-following strategy directing exposure (i) 100% to the FTSE Eurobloc Ind, (ii) 50% to the FTSE Eurobloc Ind & 50% to 3-Month US T-bills, or (iii) 100% to 3-Month US T-bills, depending on relative performance of FTSE Eurobloc TR Ind & its 200-business day historical simple moving average. The product has an asset base of $130.5 million. The fund charges 65 bps in fees (see all European Equity ETFs here).
WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund EUDG – Down 13.37%
The underlying WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Index is a fundamentally-weighted index that measures the performance of dividend-paying common stocks with growth characteristics selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index. United Kingdom (24.1%), Switzerland (16.9%) and France (15.8%) are the top three geographic locations. The fund yields 2.95% annually.
Xtrackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF DBEU – Down 13.5%
The underlying MSCI Europe US Dollar Hedged Index provides exposure to equity securities in developed stock markets in Europe, while at the same time mitigating exposure to fluctuations between the value of the U.S. dollar and selected non-U.S. currencies. The fund has an asset base of $555.8 million and it yields 3.61% annually.
Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF GXF – Down 13.7%
The underlying FTSE Nordic 30 Index tracks the performance of the 30 largest and most liquid companies in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The fund yields 3.01% annually.
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SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY): ETF Research Reports
Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE): ETF Research Reports
WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity ETF (HEDJ): ETF Research Reports
Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK): ETF Research Reports
Xtrackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF (DBEU): ETF Research Reports
WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth ETF (EUDG): ETF Research Reports
Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF (GXF): ETF Research Reports
Pacer Trendpilot European Index ETF (PTEU): ETF Research Reports
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Zacks Investment Research