As job loses continue to mount in the United States–first-time claims for unemployment insurance recently rose by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 496,000–many political officials and ordinary citizens are looking for creative ways to stem the seemingly never-ending loss of jobs. One of the hottest issues in recent weeks has been China’s currency policy, which many feel has been grossly manipulated to give the country a significant advantage in the global economy. Some argue that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40%, an advantage that makes it virtually impossible for American manufacturers to compete with cheap Chinese exports. [click to continue…]
As interest in ETF investing has surged in recent years, issuers have rushed to expand their product lines into every corner of the investable universe. The first generation of ETF products consisted mostly of equity funds designed to track well-known benchmarks, and while the vast majority of ETF assets remains in these “plain vanilla” funds, innovation in the industry has brought countless asset classes and investment strategies within the reach of all levels of investors. After initially using ETFs alongside stocks and mutual funds, many investors have now embraced all-ETF portfolios, utilizing a range products to accomplish investment objectives. ETFdb Pro members can access our line of all-ETF model portfolios, including both long-term buy-and-hold allocations and shorter-term themed strategies (if you’re not an ETFdb Pro member yet, sign up for a free trial or read more here). [click to continue…]
President Barack Obama embarked this week on a critical trip to China, seeking to gain support for tougher economic sanctions against Iran during meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao. But as the U.S. president was setting out to present his case, the controversy over the relative value of China’s currency, a delicate issue for U.S. [...]
It’s been an interesting week in the world of ETFs: major indexes trended higher despite an increase in the trade deficit and a lower number for the Consumer Sentiment Index. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
On Thursday and Friday, the leaders of 19 of the most powerful nations, as well as the leader of the European Union, will meet in the Steel City to discuss a variety of topics ranging from economic integration to energy policy. Pittsburgh was chosen to highlight the dramatic shift in fortunes following the city’s struggles [...]
