U.S. stocks have been resilient in their response to bad news throughout the year. They may sink at the start of a trading day, but they’ve been able to recover quickly and finish strong. Consider the most important headlines on Friday, April 12. Consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped to its lowest level in 9 months. Retail sales [...] [...more]
High Yield Corporate Bond ETFs, Europe & ETFs, Winter Storm Impact & ETFs, Japan & ETFs, Currency ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 2-10-2012 [...more]
Muni Bond ETFs, MLP ETFs & ETNs, Value vs. Growth ETFs, Europe & ETFs, Japan & ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 12-23-2012 [...more]
The mainstream financial media may have caught a break in 2011. Neither the S&P 500 nor the Dow fell more than 20% from respective highs, meaning that nobody ran with the “Bear Is Back” headline. It follows that the 3/9/2009 lows still represent the start of a bull market uptrend. Not surprisingly, many have chosen to wistfully recollect the [...] [...more]
Throughout the legislative battle over health care reform, health care stocks underachieved. The uncertainty over how health sub-segments might be affected – devices, providers, “Big Pharma,” biotech, retail and services – led many investors to maintain a hands-off approach. By 2011, however, in spite of lingering doubts about the health care law, valuations were difficult to pass up. Moreover, with [...] [...more]
Most analysts believed that Bernanke would announce some form of additional Fed stimulus. That was the prevailing wisdom. Moreover, analysts also believed that the markets would falter without a Fed boost, or conversely, that markets would rise with a Fed injection. By Friday, when the Fed did nothing, the markets appeared panicky at first, but then they rose [...] [...more]
We’ve heard the “revival” story before. Yet everytime over the last 2 decades that a revival in Japanese equities appeared imminent, something went awry. That said, it’s difficult to argue with the price gains or the fund flow. For instance, WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ) has experienced a week-over-week increase in net assets of nearly 14%. What’s [...] [...more]
So LinkedIn (LNKD) doubled in value from an IPO price of $45 on its first full day of trading. In truth, participants in the secondary market got their first crack at LNKD at a price point of $80. That implies a 17.5% jump… not 109.4%… but who’s calculating? Anyone who remembers the 90s probably feels like they’ve seen this movie before. In [...] [...more]
Japan’s post-catastrophe concerns, Europe’s debt struggles and emerging market inflation all have the potential to contribute to market volatility. The key for investors will be to pursue ETFs that can stil grow in spite of (or because of) the negative headlines. For instance, SPDR S&P Emerging Europe (GUR) and First Trust Global Engineering/Construction (FLM) are both hitting 52-week highs. DOes this mean that they’ll be winners in the second quarter [...] [...more]
In 2011, there have been massive outflows from emerging market favorites like Vanguard’s VWO and iShares’s EEM. The reasoning? Some believe that inflation hits emergers harder than it hits developed markets, while others worry that a stock bubble has effectively “popped.” Taken together, analysts have postulated that the U.S. and other developed markets will outperform the likes of Brazil, Russia, [...] [...more]
