Perhaps the most popular fad among investors over the past couple of years has been interest in dividend-paying stocks; with yields at record lows and risk aversion regularly spiking, portfolios have shifted towards stocks of companies known for making regular distributions of their cash flows. Not surprisingly, many investors are embracing ETFs to achieve exposure to dividend-paying stocks; the exchange-traded structure allows for cheap, low maintenance, rules-based exposure to this segment of the market.
There are more than 40 different ETFs available to U.S. investors that utilize dividends in some shape or form in developing their underlying portfolio of stocks. But not all of these funds offer up meaningful yields; many focus on dollar value or consistency of distributions, as opposed to the dividend yield individual stocks offer. As a result, many of the ETFs that include “dividend” in the name or a dividend-related screen in the underlying index don’t have very appealing payout rates [see SDIV vs. VIG: Understanding Dividend ETFs]. [click to continue…]
Stocks are off to a shaky start this week as investors digested discouraging economic growth expectations from China. The Asian behemoth cut its growth goal down to 7.5%, previously at 8%, which inevitably caused concerns that spilled over onto Wall Street. The Nasdaq led the way lower, shedding 0.86% on the day, while the Dow Jones Industrial [...]
After a tumultuous 2011 many investors are still finding their footing in the markets as confidence in the global economic recovery remains battered down. Despite persistent volatility in financial markets coupled with a looming debt crisis in Europe, the U.S. economy has demonstrated tremendous resilience; investors on the home front have digested platefuls of better-than-expected [...]
This time last year, investors were generally thrilled with the performances of their portfolios, which had continued to bounce back nicely from the devastating recession that hit in 2008. Unfortunately, few are feeling the same sense of accomplishment as 2011 draws to a close; this year has been frustrating in that a few large, swift [...]
After a record-setting October gave investors hope that 2011 would finish on a strong note, the first couple weeks of November have effectively taken any wind out of those sails. The culprit–surprise, surprise–has been the cash-strapped PIIGS economies of Europe, with Italy now grabbing the spotlight as a serious credit risk and a grave threat [...]
The housing sector has been rather difficult to predict in the past few years. Once the U.S. housing bubble burst and the Great Recession began, investors pulled out of a number of domestic equities fearing that the crisis would last for quite some time. Unfortunately, those investors were correct, as housing in the U.S. is [...]
Over the past decade, China has become an incredible economic force, surging from an investment afterthought to one of the key nations for trade in the world today. The country is currently the world’s second biggest economy from a GDP perspective and exports more products, in dollar terms, than any other nation on earth. Yet, with [...]
As the ETF industry has expanded rapidly in recent years, the universe of asset classes and investment strategies accessible through the exchange-traded wrapper has increased dramatically. In addition to funds offering exposure to natural resources and volatility–two asset classes previously beyond the reach of many investors–a number of products have popped up that seek to [...]
Van Eck announced the latest addition to its ETF lineup on Wednesday, introducing the Market Vectors Mortgage REITs ETF (MORT). The new fund will seek to replicate the Market Vectors Global Mortgage REITs Index, a cap-weighted benchmark comprised of companies that generate at least half of their revenues from mortgage REITs. That segment of the [...]
IndexIQ, the issuer perhaps best known for its hedge fund replication ETFs, rolled out the latest addition to its growing suite of small cap lineup today: the IQ U.S. Real Estate Small Cap ETF (ROOF). The new product will be the first to offer exposure exclusively to small cap U.S. REITs, seeking to replicate the [...]
By many measures, the U.S. economy has come a long way since the depths of the most recent recession; since bottoming out in early 2009, most equity indexes have climbed sharply higher and reclaimed much of the ground lost during the preceding free fall. GDP growth has swung back to the positive territory, the U.S. [...]
