Today, we’re looking at a 14-month cyclical bull. Yet, how did we get here, and… where might we be going.
Early leadership came from the financial, materials and tech sectors. Federal intervention helped stabilize a collapsing banking system, while worldwide demand from government stimulus projects bolstered resources-related companies. Not to be outdone, ”high-tech” corporations were valued for their enormous cash-rich positions and [...] Continue Reading...
Bloomberg reports the consensus price target by major Wall Street strategists has the S&P 500 closing the year at 1264. With the S&P 500 at 1200ish, are you satisfied with your allocation to U.S. Stock ETFs?
Of course, the consensus may turn out to be terribly misguided. You certainly don’t need a massive bear clawing at your portfolio balance again.
Let ETF Risk [...] Continue Reading...
Since January, the SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY) has only breached a 20-Day trendline on the downside a single time. It appears that investors are very willing to buy SPY whenever it pulls back a mere 2%-3% from its high.
“Buy America” enthusiasm has been nothing less than remarkable. The SEC charges the largest investment bank in the world [...] Continue Reading...
Believe it or not, one ETF author believes that you may be able to profit from the beleagured euro-dollar. Could this contrarian thought process work for you… or will Euro Currency ETFs offer as much as Bank ETFs during the early stages of subprime?
We look at 3 info-packed ETF features that you won’t want to miss:
Hate Greece? Buy The Euro - Matt Hougan, [...] Continue Reading...
Mark Hulbert of Hulbert Financial Digest recently examined the impact of 4 sovereign debt crises over the last 2 decades. He found that stocks in the Wilshire 5000 rose 17%, on average, from the inception of the initial headlines.
Apparently, it’s been about ninety business days since the “Greek drama” went public. Meanwhile, stocks in the Wilshire 5000 [...] Continue Reading...
Asia ETFs, Total Return ETFs
Click here to lsiten to the show: 4-28-10
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Traders are betting heavily against U.S. retailers in May. That may not be particularly surprising when one considers the 12-week surge in a blemish-free, 14-month bull market.
Nevertheless, Jeff Kearns at BusinessWeek talks more about the developments. You may also want to review the ETF Expert feature from April 19 on “heavily shorted ETFs.”
Here are 3-top notch articles [...] Continue Reading...
On Tuesday, Standard and Poor’s cut Greece’s debt rating to “junk.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. The credit rating agency also smacked Portugal for a two-notch downgrade.
Indeed, it seems the “PIIGS” acronym has legs. Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain are all in the cross-hairs of debt-conscious investors worldwide.
Granted, all stock assets reacted violently to the [...] Continue Reading...
One author compares the new business practices coming out of the emerging market nations to the renaissance that Japan witnessed with the advent of “lean manufacturing.” If the thought process is accurate… if you agree that China, Brazil and other emergers are 21st century’s winners… then you might want to investigate Small Cap Emerging Market ETFs. [...] Continue Reading...
According to Bloomberg, the S&P 500 is trading at 14.2x forecasted earnings. If you like Forward P/E ratios, that’s cheaper than at any time since 1990. (Note: Bloomberg actually excludes the post-Lehman bankruptcy when discussing how inexpensive stocks are.)
On the flip side, the S&P 500 has an inflation-adjusted Shiller’s P/E of 22.1. This is an inflation-adjusted price-to-earnings ratio that compares current [...] Continue Reading...
