Equity markets soared to multi-month highs last week as investors digested encouraging economic data on the home front coupled with positive corporate performance surprises. Wall Street ended the week on a high note after the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, paving the way for the bulls before Superbowl weekend. Looking forward, with earnings seasons dwindling down to its final releases, investors will need to once again consider the situation in Europe. Greek debt woes have resurfaced early this week as lawmakers overseas continue to struggle to reach a bailout agreement. With no major economic data releases at home this week, investors will likely have to shift their attention back to the debt burdened currency bloc, whether they like it or not.
AdvisorShares added to its rapidly-growing lineup of active ETFs today with the debut of the Accuvest Global Opportunities ETF (ACCU), which utilizes country-specific ETFs with the goal of generating excess returns relative to benchmarks such as the MSCI All Country World Index. Accuvest, the portfolio manager of the new ETF, utilizes a proprietary country ranking [...]
As the ETF universe has expanded dramatically over the last several years, many investors have taken advantage of this asset class to tap into international equity markets. With single-country ETFs dedicated to dozens of developed and emerging markets, accessing the major (and not-so-major) stock markets around the globe has never been easier. When evaluating international [...]
ETF investing has surged in recent years as the industry has experienced exponential growth in nearly all aspects of the universe. Now, there are over 1,400 products with more than $1 trillion in combined assets to offer exposure to just about every corner of the market an investor could ever want. But while these products [...]
Bullish momentum propelled stocks higher last week, although the French credit downgrade drama on Friday was enough to rekindle Euro zone woes and spark a broad-based sell-off before the weekend. Standard & Poor’s credit downgrade of France and Austria sparked volatile trading to start the week across European and Asian markets; investors on Wall Street [...]
This week sees earnings season kick into full gear, and most companies will be trying to shake off the blow that JP Morgan delivered with light revenues on Friday. Earnings season is always a major market mover, but for the US, the past few strong earnings periods have been overshadowed by things like the euro [...]
Stocks started off the week on a shaky foot, fluctuating between minor gains and losses in early trading, although optimism prevailed as the trading session drew to a close and indexes clinched gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a solid 0.26% gain on the day, while the Nasdaq lagged behind in green territory with [...]
Now that we have the first full trading week of the year under our belt, let the speculation begin about how 2012 will turn out. Some feel that last year was a minor bump in an otherwise prosperous path, while others feel that this year has the potential to be even worse than 2011. One [...]
Innovation across the exchange-traded universe has brought forth a host of investment strategies to mainstream investors, allowing for access to previously difficult to reach corners of the global financial market. Aside from the well-know benefits of ETFs, like ease-of-use and transparency, the structure of these investment vehicles holds several, often times overlooked, tax benefits as [...]
European markets soared on Tuesday following news of Berslusconi resigning, paving the way higher for domestic equity indexes as well, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.17% on the day. Confidence in the Euro zone improved considerably after it was reported that Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi plans to resign after the country’s 2012 austerity plans are [...]
Domestic equity indexes started off the week in red territory after Euro zone euphoria seemingly disappeared. Traders were quick to scale back their risk exposure after German Chancellor Angela Merkel implied that investors were getting ahead of themselves in anticipation of a quick-fix to the region’s towering debt troubles. It’s not terribly surprising to see [...]
