An exchange-traded fund that equally weights stocks in the S&P 500 was posting a solid gain in early afternoon trading Friday, beating the U.S. large-cap equities benchmark amid a broad rally.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF was up 0.9%, outperforming the cap-weighted S&P 500’s 0.5% gain. Most of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors were rising on Friday afternoon, with only consumer discretionary and communication services in the red, according to FactSet data, at last check.
Investors continued to shrug off the U.S. government shutdown that has suspended the release of economic data.
“The lack of government data was not an impediment for bulls, as the burden of proof for macro or market weakness is clearly on the bears,” Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, said in emailed comments Friday.
“As we enter the seasonally strong fourth quarter, the convergence of technical tailwinds, a resilient macro picture, and a developing cascade of tailwinds present a strong backdrop for equities,” he said.
