State Street, the issuer behind the two largest U.S.-listed exchange-traded products, announced today the launch today of three new funds offering targeted exposure to key sub-sectors of the U.S. economy. The new funds will track narrow corners of the technology, health care, and industrials sector, giving investors new options for placing targeted bets on the U.S. economy. The new ETFs include [for analysis of all new ETFs, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: [click to continue…]
This past week was a generally positive one for markets as investors shook off European worries for the time being, buying up equities across the board. Although stocks trended lower in Monday trading, they soon took off in the middle part of the week as a coordinated effort by the leaders of the euro zone [...]
A variety of political reports and government data updates have been driving the markets for the past couple of days as investors have focused in on Greece, the Federal Reserve, and more recently, the IEA. Thanks to these events, earnings reports have taken a backseat for the past few weeks as investor attention has been elsewhere. [...]
Investing in the tech sector has been especially rocky as of late as some tech firms– such as LinkedIn– have hit it big while others have faced significant market pressure. One company that has been feeling the heat since its most recent move is Microsoft which bought Skype in a $8.5 billion deal a few [...]
U.S. equity markets continued their September surge last week, as the Dow and S&P 500 both posted solid gains to mark the third consecutive week in positive territory. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq posted an even stronger five days and was up every day last week thanks to solid earnings reports out of a variety of names [...]
ETFs were originally embraced by buy-and-hold investors as an optimal, low-cost vehicle for inclusion in a long-term retirement portfolio. But in recent years they have become popular among more active traders who value their liquidity and efficiency in providing exposure to various asset classes. Once used primarily by beta grazers, ETFs have become a favorite [...]
For investors looking to make a play on the technology sector through ETFs, there are a number of options offering varying degrees of exposure. The PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, meaning it is tilted heavily towards the technology sector (about 65% of its holdings), but maintains moderate exposure to health care [...]
