ETF Performances for April

Article Excerpt

With the political debate in the U.S. heating up, politicians have taken a renewed interest in the cost and availability of healthcare products and services. This had a negative impact on the performance of healthcare stocks in April. The iShares US Medical Device ETF (New York symbol IHI) lost 3.9% during the month while the Vanguard Healthcare ETF (New York symbol VHT) lost 3.0%. This happened against the backdrop of a very positive month for equities around the world. The Vanguard Total World Stocks ETF (New York symbol VT) gained 3.4%, the Vanguard S&P 500 (New York symbol VOO) gained 4.0% and the iShares MSCI Canada Equity ETF (New York symbol EWC) 3.2%. For good measure, the iShares Core Emerging Markets ETF (New York symbol IEMG) added 2.3%. On other global markets, the Vanguard Total Bond Index ETF (Nasdaq symbol BND) was flat in April but is still up by 1.9% over the past three months. Real Estate as measured by the iShares Global REIT ETF (New York symbol REET) lost 1.4% while a broad basket of commodities—Invesco Commodity ETF (New York symbol DBC), added 0.9%. Among the…