Let’s be frank… vibrant emerging market growth is being held in check by developed world stagnation. Meanwhile, developed world central banks want to improve their economic prospects, and have subsequently chosen to devalue their respective currencies.
So for example, the Fed has chosen to reduce the value of the not-so-mighty “buck” via quantitative easing. What happens? Emerging market stock ETFs benefit because the component companies in [...] Continue Reading...
Observant investors are well aware of the massive rally in Commodity ETFs. Even less observant folks who may chat at the water cooler are cognizant of the price spike in gold. Still others may be intrigued by ETF implications for a potential spike in oil prices.
Yet, after an earlier period in 2010 when many had lost interest in Agriculture ETFs, [...] Continue Reading...
Whether you believe the U.S. is on the precipice of a complete financial collapse, or whether you fear the ramifications of the current jobless recovery, advisers and institutional investors are still finding market-based securities to purchase. Granted, many inidivdiual investors have decided to remain on the sidelines. Nevertheless, the big guns are pursuing profit and opportunity. Shouldn’t you?
On Monday, October 11th, 2010, we [...] Continue Reading...
The custodian for the overwhelming majority of my client assets under management is TD Ameritrade. So there are few ETF advocates as happy as I am about free trades on vehicles from the Big 3: iShares, Vanguard, State Street. (Note: There are a few ETFs from PowerShares, VanEck and WisdomTree, but they are noticeably small in number.)
In [...] Continue Reading...
You may not want to quote me on this observation. However, I do recall the country adding hundreds of thousands of jobs nearly every month for many years after the dot-com recession.
Like previous recessions, the jobs that were lost (5 million) were eventually gained back. Moreover, the average unemployment rate for the previous Administration was lower than [...] Continue Reading...
With the rapid decline of the U.S. dollar, quantitative easing gets the credit for most of September/October’s gains. The question is, however, what will investors want from the upcoming earnings season? If it were revenue alone, the energy sector could fly on its $70 billion in sales.
Yet revenue and profit margins and earnings “beats” are only part of the story. For the bull [...] Continue Reading...
Stocks are cheaper than investment grade bonds… a lot cheaper. In fact, earnings yields for stocks actually compete with high yield corporate bond yields. One might take note of the fact that the S&P 500 earnings-per-share yield is on the same plane as many high yield corporate bond indexes.
So why the hesitancy to get invested? You’ve got everyone from [...] Continue Reading...
According to MarketWatch, the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP) is closing in on an all-time high. Rising gold prices, a falling dollar and the prospects of additional ”Fed-led” quantitative easing have propelled this exchange-traded fund to 7% year-to-date capital appreciation. And that’s without the yield.
If you’re concerned about stagflation in the U.S. economy, TIP may need to be in your [...] Continue Reading...
There are some things that you simply don’t doubt. The Yankees “always” make the playoffs. The government will find more ways to take what is yours. And, given enough time, the U.S. dollar will lose value against other major currencies.
For those that haven’t traveled abroad since the 1990s, the weakness of the greenback often jolts like an electric [...] Continue Reading...
Vanguard Emerging Markets (VWO)!
Whether advisors are ”dressing up” client portfolios at the end of a quarter, or whether individual investors are on the hunt for excess return vis-a-vis “alpha”, Emerging Market ETFs have been smoking hot. In fact, by gathering $13+ billion in the first nine months of 2010, VWO practically doubled the next major competitor… the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD).
Wednesday’s ETF To Watch: Global Agriculture [...] Continue Reading...
