Van Eck has begun the process of converting six HOLDRS products offered by Merrill Lynch into traditional ETFs that will be included under the Market Vectors lineup, offering investors an opportunity to exchange their receipts in HOLDRS trusts for shares in the new ETFs. The exchange requires affirmative action on the part of investors, meaning that advisors or individuals with positions in existing HOLDRS must take action in order to receive shares in the new ETFs. The exchange offer is expected to remain open until December 20. [click to continue…]
The last five years have seen a tremendous expansion of the ETF industry, as assets have skyrocketed and the number of products available to U.S.-based investors has multiplied. That same period of time has also been a period of tremendous volatility in global financial markets; the last five years have witnessed an unprecedented financial crisis, [...]
The competitive landscape of the ETF industry has evolved rapidly over the last several years, with several new players–both big and small–making a push into the space. From financial giants such as RBS and Citi to relative unknowns such as Javelin and Precidian, the roster of active ETF issuers has grown to nearly four dozen. [...]
Van Eck announced last week a partnership with Merrill Lynch that may ultimately lead to the conversion of several HOLDRS products to soon-to-be-launched Market Vectors ETFs. As part of the agreement, Van Eck will introduce six new ETFs that maintain the same tickers as the existing HOLDRS but that will be part of the Market [...]
This past week marked the start to earnings season, and for the most part the reports disappointed investors and sparked sell-offs. One of the most important reports to hit the market this week came from banking giant JP Morgan. The firm reported a huge profit increase of 67% but sluggish revenues and little revenue growth [...]
Equity markets finished mixed last week as the Dow managed to outperform both of its more broadly-allocated counterparts thanks to robust earnings reports from GE and IBM. Meanwhile, financials helped to push the S&P 500 down by about 0.8% on the week while the Nasdaq sank almost two percent thanks to ongoing worries across the [...]
ProShares, a leading provider of leveraged and inverse ETFs, announced the launch on Friday of the first ETFs with leveraged and inverse exposure to the biotechnology sector. The Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIB) will seek to provide 200% of the return on the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index for a single day. The UltraShort Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIS) will [...]
For the most part, ETFs are pretty similar regardless of which issuer is behind the fund. But as many investors know, there’s one notable exception to this rule. The HOLDRS products from Merrill Lynch are similar to traditional ETFs in many ways, but also feature some nuances that make them very different in others. HOLDRS [...]
As the array of ETF product offerings has expanded in recent years, the biotech space has seen significant activity. Currently, there are five biotech ETFs that have accumulated nearly $3.5 billion in aggregate assets. Each of these funds focuses on stocks in the biotechnology industry, and in many cases there is significant overlap between the [...]
As the ETF industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, continued innovation has enabled investors to achieve more granular exposure than ever through exchange-traded products. Diversified ETFs targeting relatively narrow sectors of the domestic and global economy have multiplied, including funds targeting the airline, gaming, insurance, gold mining, timber, and food and [...]
Healthcare reform has been in the news a lot lately, with constant finger-pointing, debate, and competing versions of comprehensive bills. Although the passage of comprehensive reform appears to be less certain that it was only weeks ago, it remains likely that major changes are coming before the end of the year. While many specifics are [...]
