Equity markets ended the week in positive territory although price action was rather uneventful considering news of the Greek bailout along with several encouraging data releases on the home front. Despite positive developments in the Euro zone, gold prices jumped ahead of stocks in terms of weekly performance, showcasing that investors are not entirely convinced that the proposed bailout will fully remedy the debt situation overseas. Wall Street ended the week on a high note after consumer sentiment came in better-than-expected, helping to boost investors’ confidence on the final trading day of the week.
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Markets broadly climbed higher last week amidst ongoing uncertainty stemming from the Euro zone, although this week should offer investors more concrete insights on just how the Greek bailout negotiations are moving along. Wall Street is taking the day off today in observance of Presidents Day. With no major economic data releases due out this week on the home [...]
One of the founding principles of the ETF industry was cost competitiveness; after being charged upwards of 150 basis points for their favorite mutual funds, investors had grown tired of surrendering a substantial portion of their gains to the managers of big name funds. Now, there are ETFs that charge as low as 5 basis [...]
With the finish line in sight, it’s fairly safe to say that 2011 will be remembered by most investors as a wild, back-and-forth year that brought plenty of both hope and despair. A hot start raised optimism of a continued recovery after a generally impressive 2011, but the summer months were anything but relaxing; major [...]
The bulls came rushing back last week and equity indexes soared, bolstered by solid corporate earnings at home coupled with encouraging developments in the Euro zone. Investors were more than cheerful to see EU leaders take the first steps towards negotiating on a viable “rescue plan” to ensure stability in the financially fragile currency bloc. [...]
Domestic equity indexes started the week off with fresh multi-month highs as investor optimism from last week carried over. Stock markets were quick to give up gains on Tuesday however, after disappointing corporate earnings results weighted down on investor confidence, while continuing Euro zone debt woes didn’t do much to remedy the situation. Wednesday proved [...]
Domestic equity equity indexes struggled near technical resistance levels all of last week, however, the bulls prevailed on Friday. The S&P 500 Index opened and closes every single day above the key resistance level at 1,200; quite a technical feat, given that it failed to break this this level three times in the past three [...]
Inflation has been a particularly frustrating topic in recent months. Despite widespread predictions for a surge in CPI in the wake of unprecedented injections of liquidity into global financial markets, upward pressure on prices has not yet materialized–at least not in many developed markets. The prospect of what seems to be an inevitable outcome has [...]
Wall Street got off to a fairly tame start as investors came back from a long holiday weekend, as domestic equity indexes closed near the breakeven point and the NASDAQ edged out a small gain. Moody’s rating agency downgraded Portugal’s government debt to a grade of Baa2 from Baa1, almost immediately sending the euro lower [...]
The rapid development of exchange traded products has brought with it increased diversity in the investing space. Markets segments that were once nearly impossible for the average Joe to reach have now become as easy to buy as a share of ExxonMobil. Some of these elusive market segments include emerging markets, high yield fixed income, [...]
Unlike mutual funds, ETFs are bought not from the company that creates and manages the products, but from other market participants. While that arrangement is responsible for many of the benefits of ETFs–such as intraday liquidity–it also introduces some potential pitfalls. Specifically, using market orders can be potentially hazardous as it introduces the possibility of [...]
