Over the past several months, concerns over the fallout from the massive stimulus plans, rising unemployment, and continued weakness in corporate earnings have left many investors rethinking their allocations to U.S. equities. Once considered an essential element of any portfolio, American stocks have fallen out of favor with some investors who have shifted assets towards emerging markets and other regions (the number of ex-U.S. ETFs available is a testament to this trend). For investors disillusioned with prospects for American markets but unwilling to take on the risk inherent in emerging and frontier market funds, Europe may present an appealing option. Although the region has its share of economic turmoil (Ireland and the UK have been hit particularly hard), many investors believe the region’s economic prospects are much brighter than those of the U.S. And with green shoots now appearing throughout Europe, these ETFs may become more popular among U.S. investors seeking exposure to developed markets. But a word of warning: all Europe ETFs are not created equal. [click to continue…]
UBS Wealth Management Americas has suspended purchases of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, saying their inherent short term nature is not consistent with the firm’s long-term view of investing. In addition, UBS cited the recent regulatory guidance on leveraged funds, including comments made by FINRA earlier this month. “Recent regulatory guidance on leveraged and inverse [...]
Claymore Securities, the Lisle, Illinois-based financial services firm that offers 35 ETFs covering a variety of sectors and asset classes, announced the effectiveness of changes to its Great Companies Large-Cap Growth Index (XGC). The fund will now be known as the Claymore/BNY Mellon International Small Cap LDRs ETF, and it will track the Bank of [...]
UBS has suspended the sale of leveraged, inverse, and inverse-leveraged ETFs, the latest development in a long, twisted saga that began with complaints from individual investors and has grown to include various regulatory agencies and even the Massachusetts Secretary of State. Last week, Edward Jones announced that it had suspended the sale of leveraged funds [...]
One of Europe’s most prominent ETF sponsors has jumped across the pond, making its initial foray into the U.S. markets. ETF Securities (ETFS), which has about $12 billion invested in more than 130 products worldwide, launched the ETFS Silver Trust (SIVR) on Friday. The new fund will trade on the NYSE Arca Exchange, and has [...]
iPhone apps for the intelligent investor.
The excitement has continued to increase in the world of ETFs this week. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
Although the entire ETF industry has enjoyed a tremendous boom over the last year, perhaps no corner of the market has expanded as quickly as emerging markets funds. According to State Street’s industry snapshot, assets in international ETFs totaled about $28.6 billion at then end of June, representing an increase of 27.5% year to date. [...]
Biotech ETFs, which saw tremendous gains earlier this week on news that Human Genome Science Inc.’s (HGSI) lupus drug had passed a key clinical trial hurdle, were big winners again on Thursday. The driver this time: news that antibody technology specialist Medarex had agreed to be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. at close to a [...]
I came across some interesting statistics compiled by Cogent Research LLC and reported in the Wall Street Journal this morning. According to a survey of some 1,500 brokers and advisers, concerns over poor performance and a lack of transparency are driving professional money managers to move assets away from traditional mutual funds and into various [...]
As the universe of ETFs and indexing grows, the conference scene grows as well. One event this year worth considering is The Art of Indexing Summit USA 2009, in NYC. There are a number of interesting speakers lined up to present at this year’s conference, which promises to provide some insights into the current state [...]
