iShares, the ETF market leader in the U.S. with more than 200 individual funds across virtually every asset class, will notch another first for the industry later this month when it becomes the first ETF provider to list products on the BATS Exchange. January 24 will mark the first day of trading for eight new iShares ETFs on the BATS, with each of the upcoming products offering single-country exposure to an international stock market: [click to continue…]
As most investors are painfully aware at this point, Europe is not in the best of fiscal shape at present. The continent is in the midst of a prolonged debt crisis that is now threatening the continued existence of the euro, and has transformed the region into a form of portfolio Kryptonite; most investors won’t [...]
Equity markets have taken a wild ride this past year as everything from an unimaginable earthquake in Japan to a looming debt crisis in Europe has taken its toll on investors’ confidence. As 2011 draws to a close, many are left scratching their heads in confusion and uncertainty, given the predominantly gloomy economic outlook that [...]
Over the course of the last few years, the ETF space has grown immensely. What started off as a handful of low-cost, broad-based funds has now turned into a space of nearly 1,400 products with investment methodologies ranging across the board. The innovation in the space has led to a number of unique products that [...]
As the ETF universe has expanded rapidly over the past few years, so too has the reach of its exposure. Where there was once only a few hundred products for basic investing, there now stands over 1,400 ETFs with more than one trillion in combined assets. There are now ETFs for not only broad-based investing, [...]
Resurfacing Italian debt woes paved the way for persistent volatility in the markets last week, further deteriorating the economic outlook of the financially fragile currency bloc. Selling pressures overwhelmed the bulls on Wall Street, despite a host of better-than-expected economic data releases on the home front, including surprisingly strong retail sales, new home starts, industrial [...]
Domestic equity indexes started off the week on a positive note, unlike European markets which fell victim to selling pressures as worries over Italy spooked investors. Yields on 10-year Italian bonds soared to their highest level since 1997 as political turmoil in Rome intensified after Prime Minister Berlusconi defied huge pressure to resign. In response [...]
This past week was, for the most part, a stellar time for major equities as a number of positive data releases buffered a healthy market rally. The Dow pushed through 12,000 while the S&P is making reaches for the 1,300 mark. Oil was perhaps the most talked about asset, as its price skyrocketed early in the week [...]
The ETF industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds as investors embrace the numerous benefits associated with the exchange-traded product structure. Recent volatility in the markets hasn’t stopped the industry from expanding as issuers continue to beef up their product pipelines and roll out first-to-market products. In a slew of SEC filings, iShares, the [...]
Wall Street posted yet another up-down week of performance as domestic equity indexes fluctuated and ultimately fell victim to serious profit taking as the final trading session drew to a close. Worse-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence coupled with a decline in personal income were concerning data releases that only added to the piling uncertainty weighting down [...]
Given the broad weakness in the euro zone throughout 2011 and the ever-present fears of default in a number of nations, most investors shouldn’t be surprised to read that all of the ETFs in the European Equities ETFdb Category are down in year-to-date terms. In fact, at time of writing, only the iShares MSCI UK [...]
