Six months ago, the pervasive commentary surrounding stock assets involved ”coming too far, too fast.” Yet the nay-saying didn’t stop there.
Financial stocks were supposed to buckle because few institutions were lending. Discretionary stocks were supposed to crater because consumers were still deleveraging in a poor job environment. And REITs? They were suspect due to everything from residential foreclosures to [...] Continue Reading...
Many Latin American countries have less debt than their counterparts around the developed world. Moreover, forecasters uniformly project that these countries will experience faster economic growth than the United States. If the assessment holds true, will Latin American ETFs, like Brazil, outperform the competition?
We bring your attention to some can’t-miss ETF articles on April 20, 2010:
Latin America ETF Mines Small-Caps - Roger [...] Continue Reading...
Is it ironic… or is it just the way things are? The ETFs with the heaviest short interest in 2010 represent some of the same sectors that bearish investors slammed in the 2008 meltdown.
For example, selling short the shares of the iShares Dow Jones Real Estate Fund (IYR) was an extremely popular and profitable move in [...] Continue Reading...
For those that have not “flipped” their Real Estate ETF holdings, the last year has been exceptionally kind. However, rising interst rates put pressure on the yield component of REITs. And, commercial prop may be the next shoe to drop. That leads many to wonder if success in Real Estate ETFs is still in the cards?
Here are 3 enticing ETF features [...] Continue Reading...
Health Care ETFs Since New Law, Bond ETFs, Income ETFs, Commodity ETFs, Currency ETFs
Click here to listen to the show: 4-18-10
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It’s not like the pundits haven’t been talking about it. The S&P 1225-1230ish level represents harsh resistance for the stock market.
There are scores of reasons. Yet one author puts forward a few more, including the ghost of the Lehman bankruptcy in October 2008 as well as Fibonacci retracement; the latter suggests that S&P 500 1228 may be a [...] Continue Reading...
Has mark-to-market accounting been replaced or overhauled? We all remember the cry for suspension in 2008 and 2009, but if it received an official “fare-thee-well,” I certainly missed it.
In a mark-to-market accounting world, the 4 bank beasts (i.e., Wells, Citi, JP Morgan and B of A) are collectively insolvent. Those are the findings of Garrett Jones at George Mason University. And yet, the SPDR [...] Continue Reading...
The Fed has kept interest rates as low it can. And they hope to continue keeping them low “for an extended period.” In essence, that has forced money managers, advisers and big institutions to go further out on the risk curve, including the use of convertibles, high yield bonds and yes… stocks. (And we wonder [...] Continue Reading...
Higher beta sectors are responsible for pushing the popular U.S. stock benchmarks through the proverbial roof. Dow 11,000… done. S&P 500 reaching 1200 and beyond… check.
Yet low beta sectors are not just underperforming, they’re being abandoned. Specifically, the low-risk trinity of Staples (XLP), Health Care (XLV) and Utilities (XLU) looks as though they’re being cast aside altogether.
Through mid-day on [...] Continue Reading...
ProShares announced that it wanted to do reverse splits on a host of Short ETFs. Forget the PR reasoning… this was a move to get share prices out of ”single-digit alley.” And now we have others expressing ”humility” about their bearishness.
Does this mean that investors who didn’t participate in the uptrend should swalloew their pride? Should they join the train? Or have we [...] Continue Reading...
