Major storms in both the U.S. and in Australia have had adverse effects on agricultural products. Tack on a Fed-inspired weak dollar, increasing emerging market demand, and… you find a world that is struggling to cope with food price inflation. So how might you benefit from the trend? One author believes that super-sized gains for the Powershares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) [...] [...more]
Crude oil is more than twice the price that it was during 2009’s lowest ebb. That said, at $75 per barrel, oil is still half the value it set at the 2008 peak. Is now the time to consider the indispensable global commodity? Or will hoped-for profits slip-slide away? Investors should also investigate recent trends in Natural Resource ETFs. Oil ETFs: Uncertain Future - Kevin Grewal, The Street Providers Hatched 22 [...] [...more]
Who doesn’t appreciate a good analogy? State Street ETFs are to U.S. markets as Vanguard ETFs are to emerging markets. Put another way, iShares ETFs are to 30-year olds as Vanguard ETF are to teenagers. Yep… Vanguard ETFs are rapidly growing. Recent ETF inflow/outflow data for the first 3 quarters show that Vanguard picked up nearly $18 billion in [...] [...more]
Heather Bell of Index Universe chronicled summertime events involving ETFs, musing that the season was anything but slow. She definitely has a point. The diary “stimulated” my thinking; that is, I found myself pondering the lasting implications of the various happenings. Here, then, is my take on the ups, downs, pros and cons of different events that transpired in the [...] [...more]
