Global X, one of the fastest growing ETF issuers in the world, announced further proposals to expand its lineup last week with an SEC filing for five new ETFs. The proposed products look to give investors access to highly specialized corners of the market, following in the footsteps of funds such as the company’s Lithium ETF (LIT), Fishing ETF (FISN), and its Canada Preferred Fund (CNPF). If launched, the funds would bring the company’s ETF total up to 40, excluding the smattering of filings that the firm has detailed over the past few weeks. While expense ratios or ticker symbols were not released for any of the proposed funds, we have highlighted some of the key details from the filing below: [click to continue…]
This past week was filled with more of the same for investors; abundant volatility across equities coupled with feelings of uncertainty regarding the financial well-being of the United States. Lawmakers in Washington are keeping investors on the edge of their seat (putting the pressure on equities) as the debt-ceiling deadline approaches, and several rating agencies [...]
Wall Street started the week once again in red territory as investors remain reluctant to jump back into the equity markets given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the debt-ceiling controversy at home. Gold continues to charge higher as the precious metal opened above $1,600 an ounce on Monday morning. Earnings season is well underway and so [...]
Wall Street regained some lost ground last week as investors appeared less fearful to jump back into the equity markets. Corporate earnings were mostly upbeat, although several big financial institutions missed estimates while Apple and Google both blew past analyst predictions. Emerging market equity indexes also ended the week in green territory. Gold took a [...]
By many measures, the U.S. economy has come a long way since the depths of the most recent recession; since bottoming out in early 2009, most equity indexes have climbed sharply higher and reclaimed much of the ground lost during the preceding free fall. GDP growth has swung back to the positive territory, the U.S. [...]
So far, 2011 has been a pretty good time to be a commodity producer, as most natural resource firms have risen substantially to start the year. While some sectors of the market, such as rare earth metals and agribusiness, have posted impressive gains, the two funds representing the timber industry have been quietly among the leaders through the first four [...]
It doesn’t seem like that long ago that exchange-traded commodity products were the darlings of the ETF world. Praised for democratizing an entire asset class (and one capable of delivering non-correlated returns to investors at that), commodity ETFs saw billions of dollars of cash inflows in 2009. Investors rushed to get their hands on everything [...]
It’s baaaaaaaack. After a brief hiatus that saw investors rushing to determine the best ways to battle deflation, inflationary concerns have begun to surface again. The cause of the latest bout of inflationary anxiety is of course the QE2 program recently announced by the Federal Reserve that calls for the purchase of hundreds of billions [...]
It’s difficult to put a finger on the exact cause of the recent surge in popularity of commodity investing. More than likely, the boom is attributable to a number of different factors. Correlation between international equity markets (and even between stocks and bonds) has surged in recent years, increasing both the importance and difficulty of [...]
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 [...]
Over the past 18 months, housing prices have retreated sharply from the highs reached at the end of the housing boom. However, there are reasons to believe that one of the longest and most severe housing slumps ever is nearing an end. Building permits recently increased to a 584,000 yearly pace, well above the forecasted [...]
