The last week of October turned out to be a trick rather than a treat for investors, as the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting weighed on the markets. This ongoing debate over the merits of the program has left many traders unsure how the economy would cope with a smaller QE program, and also how the dollar would deal with another massive round of stimulus. Nevertheless, stocks managed to finish mixed thanks to moderating unemployment levels and a reasonably solid level of GDP growth which helped to soothe market fears to end out the month. A few solid earnings reports also helped to boost markets, especially from ExxonMobil; the oil giant managed to grow its net income by over 55% when compared to the previous year’s period. However, not all the major components managed to please the markets; 3M, which handily beat estimates, managed to sink more than 6.5% after the company reported that it was cutting its profit forecast for the rest of the year helping to erase the goodwill built up by XOM’s solid forecast and report. [click to continue…]
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 [...]
Despite the increased need and demand for many broadband services, the first two months of 2010 have not been very kind to the Broadband HOLDR (BDH), which has already slumped by more than 10% on the year. This disappointing stretch comes after a superb 2009 that saw the fund post a 38% gain. Why the [...]
Markets have been off to a rough start in 2010 with most major benchmarks falling more than 5% year-to-date and sparking fresh fears over a double-dip recession. Relatively few asset classes have gone unscathed as equities, both domestic and international equities have dropped in tandem with commodities. While some see this as a long-overdue downward [...]
Newsweek grabbed headlines this week with its bold cover declaring “The Recession is Over.” While not everyone (including the president) agrees with this prognosis, it does seem that at the very least “we’ve stopped the freefall,” to borrow Obama’s words. Unemployment has slowed (although it is yet to reverse course), the decline in GDP was [...]
