The U.S. stock market has actually outperformed the overwhelming majority of world equity markets on a local currency basis. However, the dollar’s year-to-date slide has inflated the returns of developed world ETFs like iShares MSCI France (EWQ) and iShares Italy (EWI). In fact, virtually all of the gains for Foreign Stock ETFs traded on U.S. exchanges can be attributed to the [...] Continue Reading...
Less than a year ago, China eclipsed Japan as the world’s 2nd largest economy. And there’s little doubt that China will uproot the U.S. as “numero uno,” though the anticipated hand-over date may be a decade more in the making. Drilling down by region, however, the Asia Pacific ex-Japan designation should supplant the U.S. midway through the next presidential [...] Continue Reading...
Over the last decade, there have been thousands upon thousands of articles that insisted how yields could only go higher. What if you had $100 for every one of those features. That’s right… you wouldn’t have to invest! On the other hand, for all the cry-wolf commentary that has appeared over the years, the sheep may finally [...] Continue Reading...
Can you name the developed country that hasn’t experienced a recession in close to 20 years? It’s Australia. And not only did the land “down under” weather the dot-com disaster that ushered in the 21st century, the nation also made it through the global credit collapse of 2008. Equally worthy of note, Australia was the first developed world sovereignty to raise [...] Continue Reading...
The U.S. economy has been dribbling the ball off its foot and out of bounds. And while some have been surprised by the quick downturn in data points, U.S. Stock ETFs and U.S. Treasury Bond ETFs have been warning investors for quite some time. In my estimation, the signs pointing to corrective activity began in mid-March. Nevertheless, the official top for the [...] Continue Reading...
Emerging ETFs, China ETFs, U.S. Correction And ETFs, Commodity ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 6-12-2011 Continue Reading...
ETFs like the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) or iShares S&P 100 Index (OEF) are both down roughly -6% over the previous 4 weeks. In the same time frame, the iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) has shed -8%. Breadth indicators confirm that investors have been transitioning from small companies over to larger ones. However, if enough fear grabs hold of equities, relative outperformance may be [...] Continue Reading...
Investors have become so accustomed to the notion of “risk on” and “risk off,” many have cast aside one of the most hallowed principles of success. Specifically, reducing the possibility of loss (a.k.a. “risk”) requires individual assets that do not all move in the same direction. How does an ETF investor know whether his/her investments are zigging simultaneously, rather than zigging and [...] Continue Reading...
Pimco’s Bill Gross believes treasury investors could be on a very dangerous path. In fact, he’s been slamming treasuries for months, even as their gains have been phenomenal. Even if Mr. Gross was “early” on his call to dump treasuries and/or short them, he certainly has a case to make. QE2 is close to expiration, which means the [...] Continue Reading...
It often pays to gander at individual companies that are languishing on the list of New 52-Week Lows. In general, if you identify a number of brand name corporations that fit into a particular industry, there’s a high probability that a Sub-Sector ETF has been rattled as well. For instance, Bank of America (BAC) and Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) reached [...] Continue Reading...
