Risk assets haven’t been the same since the end of April. Yet they didn’t begin to look feeble until one month ago, around the moment that the U.S. government was floundering over the debt ceiling. First, stocks and commodities debated whether or not Congress could agree on any type of legislation. Next, they struggled with sovereign debt contagion in [...] [...more]
More often than not, I appreciate the data and info compiled by the folks at Morningstar. With that said, there are times when I need to call their team to the carpet. When might I feel that desire? Whenever the world-renowned publisher serves up generalized advice that is too simplistic. Would you care to wager a guess on how Morningstar [...] [...more]
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 [...] [...more]
On a day when the Wall Street Journal heralded China’s growing appetite for imported coal, Market Vectors Coal (KOL) dropped -5.25% on 935,000 shares trading hands. To put this in perspective… this represented more than 2x the downside volatility of the S&P 500 at more than 2x the average volume. Granted, most of the May 4 selling can be [...] [...more]
The exchange-traded fund industry certainly has reason to cheer. With nearly 820 ETFs and close to 3/4 of $1 trillion under management, the numbers speak volumes about viability and desirability. Yet, with roughly $90 billion net new dollars coming in 2009, U.S. stock ETFs actually LOST -$26 billion of assets under management. And that’s on top of the fact that [...] [...more]
