Equity markets soared to multi-month highs last week as investors digested encouraging economic data on the home front coupled with positive corporate performance surprises. Wall Street ended the week on a high note after the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, paving the way for the bulls before Superbowl weekend. Looking forward, with earnings seasons dwindling down to its final releases, investors will need to once again consider the situation in Europe. Greek debt woes have resurfaced early this week as lawmakers overseas continue to struggle to reach a bailout agreement. With no major economic data releases at home this week, investors will likely have to shift their attention back to the debt burdened currency bloc, whether they like it or not.
Rydex, the issuer behind the ultra-popular S&P Equal Weight ETF (RSP), announced this week the introduction of two new ETFs that offer equal-weighted exposure to the S&P MidCap 400 Index and S&P SmallCap 600 Index. The new ETFs include:
The month of May was a generally disappointing stretch for investors, as both international and domestic equity markets struggled to overcome obstacles new and old. Commodities, which had been a nice source of absolute returns for much of the last year, fell on hard times as well; precious metals went into a brief freefall, and [...]
The rapid growth of the ETF industry in recent years has altered the investment landscape in more ways than one. The low expense ratios offered by most exchange-traded products have brought increased scrutiny on active managers and called into question their ability to add value to client portfolios. The immediate diversification offered by a basket [...]
An already tumultuous day took a terrifying turn in afternoon trading on Thursday, as several major U.S. indexes lost multiple percentage points in a matter of minutes before reclaiming big chunks of the ground lost. At 2:40 on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 415 points, putting it on pace for one [...]
Once investors have narrowed down the universe of 900+ exchange-traded products to those that could potentially match the risk/return profile they’re seeking, the real work begins (see Five Free Tools For Finding The Right ETF). When comparing ETFs to find the best fit for a portfolio, one of the metrics most frequently analyzed is the [...]
PowerShares launched nine highly anticipated new ETF products on Wednesday, introducing a line of funds that offer a new twist on traditional sector-specific investing. The nine PowerShares S&P SmallCap Sector Portfolios are based upon respective S&P SmallCap 600 Capped Sector Indexes, each of which is designed to measure the overall performance of common stocks of [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has changed a lot about the business of investing. It has altered the way investors look at expenses, making it difficult to justify handing over 200 basis points (or more) each year to an active manager who can’t regularly beat a benchmark. It has also expanded the universe of [...]
Fidelity Investments announced today that it will offer its retail customers commission-free online trades for a suite of 25 iShares ETFs. The funds included in the commission-free platform include ETFs in all nine domestic equity style/size categories, as well as international equity and fixed income options. “Fidelity has partnered with the leading ETF provider in [...]
After launching more than 120 new funds last year, the ETF industry seems poised to continue its rapid growth in 2010. Numerous issuers have big plans for this year, with the number of new product launches expected to once again exceed 100 and perhaps even top last year’s results. A recent SEC filing shed some [...]
In the beginning of the ETF industry, there was SPY. From there, the initial wave of expansion included primarily “plain vanilla” equity funds offering exposure to widely-followed benchmarks, such as the Dow, Nasdaq, and even sector-specific indexes. But innovation and product development in the ETF world didn’t stop there. The last five years have seen [...]
