Financial worries at home surrounding the debt-ceiling coupled with a downgrade of Ireland’s credit quality into junk territory overshadowed the start of corporate earnings seasons on Wall Street. Uncertainty and general pessimism pushed investors into the “safer” corner of the market and gold emerged strongest. The yellow precious metal hit record highs on Thursday as August futures prices reached $1,594 an ounce. Strong profits from Citigroup and Google helped equity markets end the week on a positive note, however, equity indexes broadly finished in red territory for the week with the S&P 500 down 2%.
On tap next week are more earnings reports from industry giants and our model ETF portfolios are positioned to regain some lost ground amidst the recent volatility on Wall Street and around the globe.
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Wall Street started the week in red territory as European debt woes stole the headlines and put investors in a gloomy mood. Investors are very fearful that Italy’s financial health is seriously deteriorating, and if no grand solutions are conceived in a timely manner, then it might be too late to bail out the country [...]
Domestic equities were shaky last week to say the least, managing to rally on Thursday and immediately sell-off on Friday following a very dismal employment report. Gold emerged as the strongest asset class, while crude oil futures fluctuated wildly much like equity markets across the globe. Earnings season officially starts this week and we are [...]
San Francisco-based iShares, which was acquired by BlackRock from Barclays last year, has more than 180 U.S.-listed ETFs. But the distribution of assets is far from even across these funds. At the end of 2009, the ten largest iShares ETFs–only about five percent of the issuer’s product line–accounted for 50% of total assets. So there’s [...]
In an unexpected development, the European Central Bank announced Friday that it will tighten the standards under which it accepts asset-backed securities as collateral from banks for refinancing tenders after March 1. While this step seems relatively minor, analysts viewed its as the first step towards unwinding the massive stimulus plans put into effect to [...]
Thanks to strong economic recoveries in Germany and France, the 16-country euro zone has now officially exited its worst recession in a half century. According to data released on Friday, the euro zone grew by 0.4% in the third quarter, compared with a 0.2% decline in the second quarter. Although the news strengthened hopes of [...]
Over the weekend in Germany, an alliance between the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the pro-business Free Democratic Party claimed a majority in Germany’s lower house of Parliament that could set the stage for slashes to government spending and income taxes. German Chancellor Angela Merkel now has a partner who supports implementing tax cuts, not [...]
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 [...]
