For the investors who had been preaching on the need to brace for a surge in inflation in the wake of massive capital injections, credibility continues to slip away. Recent CPI readings have been tame, to say the least; deflation is a more immediate concern even in an environment where inflation rates are expected to remain near record lows for the foreseeable future. [click to continue…]
Before the onset of the recent global recession, a decade-long commodity boom had delivered handsome returns to investors who established exposure to natural resources, as the prices of everything from apples to zinc climbed steadily on mounting scarcity concerns. During this prolonged run-up grains prices skyrocketed as food crises materialized, with a sharp economic pullback [...]
Recent years have seen the launch of hundreds of new exchange-traded products, many of which offer increasingly granular exposure to various asset classes. The latest innovation comes in the commodity space, where Vermont-based Teucrium Trading LLC filed with the SEC for an ETF that invests in Chicago Board of Trade Corn Futures. The Teucrium Corn [...]
Following the massive injections into capital markets in recent years, inflation has become a major concern of many investors, and the quest to uncover assets that offer portfolio protection against a potential uptick in the CPI has taken on many forms. While inflation-protected bonds are the instrument of choice for some, others have turned their [...]
For most investors, 2009 has been a very good year, with a surge in liquidity leading almost all asset classes to big gains. As many national economies emerged from recession, investors regained their appetite for risk, sending emerging markets funds through the rook (these funds dominated the list of the Top Ten Performing Equity ETFs). [...]
It’s been an interesting week in the world of ETFs: Greek government debt was downgraded and world leaders continued their climate conference in Copenhagen. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
As U.S. equity markets have soared in recent months, the dollar has steadily declined against most of its major rivals, recently falling below the key $1.50 level against the euro for the first time since August of last year. This extended fall has investors wondering if the dollar’s decline reflects temporary volatility, or a long-term [...]
Sugar ETFs have continued their “almost vertical trajectory” in recent weeks, soaring higher on news that several major food producers sent a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture exclaiming that the U.S. could “virtually run out of sugar” if import restrictions on the sweetener aren’t lifted. Currently, quotas limit the amount of sugar U.S. companies [...]
