The S&P 500 pulled back 2.5% from a multi-year high of 1370. Oil has sold off more than 10% from its peak. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) have been trading as much as 6% lower. And don’t even get us started on the dramatic drop for iShares Silver (SLV). Other than extraordinary capital gains for defensive sectors, then, is something going on? [...] Continue Reading...
Picking individual countries is not entirely dissimiliar to picking individual companies. You can tirelessly pursue “best of breed” stocks, but you may have better fortune with diversified index funds. Similarly, you might endeavor to ferret out a premier single-country ETF. Yet, over time, employing a diversified regional ETF is likely to provide more rewarding risk-adjusted results. With that said, if you’re willing to put [...] Continue Reading...
Since the March 2009 bear market low, the S&P 500 has had 4 significant pullbacks of 7% or more. Those sell-offs included a 9.1% drop (June – July 2009), a 9.2% correction (Jan – Feb 2010), a 17.1% beating (April – July 2010) and a 7.1% dip (February-March 2011). Investors have been at the ready to “buy the dips” for more than 2 years. With defensive [...] Continue Reading...
It wasn’t that long ago when I criticized terms such as “overbought” and “undervalued.” (See April’s Going Global: Rethinking the Overbought Concept.) In essence, I explained why investors may give more credence to powerful-sounding words than they give to common sense information. With that said, you should look at a sector’s P/E ratio and compare it against the sector’s P/E [...] Continue Reading...
While the FOMC and Ben Bernanke believe that inflation is under control, the cost of commodities (e.g., corn, silver, coal, cotton, coffee, etc.) have rocketed to multi-year peaks. Over the last decade, the price of crude alone has spiked 340%, jumping from $25 per barrel to $110+. Investors may have good reason to worry about the effects on their wallets and their portfolios. For instance, families may balk at [...] Continue Reading...
April was the best month for U.S. stocks in 2011 and analysts were quick to offer explanations. The most common interpretation? The markets were pleasantly surprised by the fact that 75%-80% of corporations beat their earnings and revenue forecasts. Of course, revenue-generating, profit behemoths owe most of their success to sales in the developing world. The greater the U.S. presence in [...] Continue Reading...
The Nikkei 225 Index closed above 10,000 today for the first time since the March 11th earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated their shores. And while many Japan ETFs have witnessed record inflows, the differences in performance are startling. For instance, the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (EWJ) has gained 9% from its lows as well as $1 billion in new assets [...] Continue Reading...
Economic ETFs, Fed Policy And ETFs, Metals ETFs, Inflation Fighting ETFs, Currency ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 5-1-2011 Continue Reading...
