To this point in 2010, investors around the globe have paid close attention to every development in the euro zone, as crumbling public finances in the region have threatened to spark a wave of crippling defaults and have called into question the sustainability of the common currency. Most of the attention has focused on Greece, where a skyrocketing public deficit has set the stage for a downgrade of sovereign debt to below investment grade. [click to continue…]
Equity markets snapped a two-day losing streak on Wednesday, as comments from Ben Bernanke indicating that interest rates could remain low for the foreseeable future caused a buying spree on Wall Street. Elsewhere, General Motors announced that it would begin winding down Hummer operations after Chinese regulators rejected a proposed deal while Toyota’s president apologized to lawmakers on Capitol Hill for flaws in his company’s products. [click to continue…]
Investing in emerging and frontier markets can often help investors to diversify equity holdings and provide exposure to growth opportunities not available in advanced economies. But with any opportunity for big gains often comes significant risk, including the potential for political instability, currency revaluation, and government intervention in the private sector. There’s also the issue [...]
A group led by financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, which bought Lisle, Illinois-based ETF issuer Claymore last year, has reached a deal to acquire Security Benefit Corp., the parent company of ETF issuer Rydex SGI.The group led by Guggenheim will make an investment of approximately $400 million for a controlling interest in Security Benefit. According [...]
Whenever a company prepares for a public offering, executives have been known to spend an inordinate amount of time choosing the combination of letters that will serve as the company’s ticker and often nickname within the investment community. To many, the fixation on selecting the perfect ticker seems like an irrational obsession on par with [...]
The tremendous increase in the number of ETFs launched in recent years has seemingly brought cheap, efficient access to nearly every corner of the globe within reach of U.S. investors. There are now funds devoted to Vietnam, Turkey, Israel, Colombia, among countless others. But while the breadth of international options has expanded significantly, the exposure [...]
After watching their portfolios take devastating blows in 2008, many investors hoped that a new year would bring a reversal of fortune and a recovery of lost assets. After the first two months of the year tested resolve, things finally took a turn for the better in March, and long climb upwards began. Most equity [...]
Following a year that saw some of the worst performances in recent memory, many asset classes have bounced back in 2009. But some have performed better than others, and as the year draws to a close we take a look at some of the best-performing ETFs. The year’s top gainers include a few of the [...]
As ETFs have grown from a closet industry to a mainstream investing option, funds offering exposure to nearly every corner of the globe have popped up. Although the abundance of funds has brought access to dozens of equity markets within reach, the vast majority of international ETFs provide fairly shallow exposure to the country they [...]
On Tuesday, Claymore Securities launched its China Technology ETF (CQQQ), the first U.S.-listed ETF to focus on the Chinese technology sector. CQQQ joins three other China ETFs from Claymore (YAO, HAO, TAO) that have accumulated more than $500 million in aggregate assets. The new ETF will seek to replicate the AlphaShares China Technology Index, a [...]
New York-based Global X Funds, the issuer behind the first U.S.-listed ETFs offering exposure to Colombia and the Nordic region, announced the launch of two new funds focusing on China on Tuesday. The Global X China Industrials ETF (CHII) and China Consumer ETF (CHIQ) are the first funds to offer sector-specific exposure within the China [...]
Lisle, Illinois-based Claymore, the ETF issuer that was acquired by Guggenheim Partners earlier this year, announced last week that it will close four of its lightly-traded ETFs. December 11 will be the last day of trading for the following funds: