ETF performance is mixed

Article Excerpt

Investors holding energy and information technology ETFs have so far done well this year. Some of the top-performing ETFs for 2018 hold direct exposure to oil, such as the United States Oil Fund (New York symbol USO). It has gained 25.4%. Unfortunately, Canadian producers have lagged as low bitumen prices depressed sales for producers in the oil sands. Information Technology also performed well for the first half of 2018. Canadian technology stocks, as represented by iShares S&P/TSX Technology ETF (Toronto symbol XIT), are up 21.2% (16.1% in U.S. dollars) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (Nasdaq symbol QQQ) has gained 10.6% so far this year. Global Technology stocks, as reflected by the performance of the iShares Global Technology ETF (New York symbol IXN) have also gained. Still, the strong U.S. dollar has hurt its performance. Investors with significant exposure to Latin America, Brazil, emerging markets, telecoms and consumer staples have seen weaker returns. The Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (New York symbol VWO), for…