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SPDR Attack: State Street Rolls Out More Sector ETFs

Michael Johnston — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:00:24 +0000

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]: SPDR Software & Services ETF (XSW) This ETF will seek to replicate the S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index, a benchmark that consists of companies in the following sub-sectors: application software, data processing and outsourced services, home entertainment software, internet software and services, IT consulting, and systems software. XSW will compete with three existing software ETFs that are already pretty well established in the space, including iShares” IGV, PowerShares’ PSJ, and the Software HOLDRS (SWH) [...]

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Can Defense ETFs Survive A Spending Slowdown?

Eric Dutram — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:45:58 +0000

Over the past few months, one of the key issues that has been facing the U.S. is the enormous budget deficit and how best to get this debt under control. The U.S. has already lost its prized ‘AAA’ credit rating according to S&P and it appears that others may follow if more steps aren’t taken to reign in spending. Thanks to this, a legislative ‘supercommittee’ has been set up in order to find ways to cut spending, while at the same time, allowing the nation to grow. The task is pretty immense as the 12 person group is supposed to somehow agree on an additional $1.5 trillion in savings over a ten year period, not an easy find given how deadlocked and partisan our Congress has become. Nonetheless, one of the first places that lawmakers will probably look at will be in the Defense Department. “”Overall defense spending accounts for [...]

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May ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performing ETFs

Michael Johnston — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:00:43 +0000

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 most other natural resources saw price declines as well. May demonstrated the importance of a meaningful allocation to fixed income within any long-term portfolio, as most bond ETFs turned in nice gains during the month. The following tables highlight the best performers from each ETFdb Category during the month of May [ETFdb Pro members can download spreadsheets showing performance and expense data for the entire ETF universe]. Equity ETFs Though most equity ETFs finished May in negative territory, there were a handful of bright spots among the hundreds of ETFs that slice and dice the [...]

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Three ETFs To Watch This Week: ITA, BBH, EWG

Eric Dutram — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:00:25 +0000

Equity markets finished mixed last week as the Dow managed to outperform both of its more broadly-allocated counterparts thanks to robust earnings reports from GE and IBM. Meanwhile, financials helped to push the S&P 500 down by about 0.8% on the week while the Nasdaq sank almost two percent thanks to ongoing worries across the technology sector, but especially with key component Apple which saw their beloved CEO Steve Jobs take another leave of absence to deal with cancer. Commodities also posted a rough week as gold saw its value tumble by close to $40/oz. from its mid week high and oil continued its slide after posting solid gains in the previous weeks. Meanwhile, in emerging markets, concerns over China and a possible rate hike continued to plague a number of sectors as many are growing increasingly concerned that this key engine of economic growth is likely to do its [...]

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Three ETFs To Watch This Week: IYG, PPH, ITA

Eric Dutram — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:00:33 +0000

Although growth prospects remain dim and job creation remains minimal, investors continue to snatch up equities thanks to a weak dollar and hopes that the Fed will resume its quantitative easing program in the not-so-distant future. However, speculation of this program and brighter futures in emerging markets are combining to produce some collateral damage, as a variety of commodities ranging from sugar to oil have seen prices surge in recent days thanks to continued weakness in the greenback. Nevertheless, U.S. equities managed to once again finish last week in positive territory, as the broad S&P gained roughly 10 points, or 0.9%. This gain came on the back of solid corporate profits from major names such as Google, which finished the week up almost 12% on a robust third quarter earnings report. This news helped to buoy the tech sector and investors bought up other big tech names in anticipation of [...]

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Three ETFs To Watch This Week: ITA, IXC, EWP

Eric Dutram — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:23:04 +0000

A second week of earnings did little to clarify the market’s direction despite quality reports out of a host of important American corporations. After another flat Monday, markets surged on Tuesday after a strong report from Apple boosted hopes for the consumer discretionary sector as well as the electronics market. However, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke gave his biannual testimony to Congress on Wednesday in which he called the outlook for America’s economy ‘unusually uncertain’. He also stated that the Fed was considering other measures in order to boost the economy such as removing the interest that banks receive from keeping deposits at the Reserve which pushed equities down sharply and reignited fears over a double dip. However, equities rebounded to finish the week stronglywith shares opening higher on Thusday and posting modest gains on Friday after GE announced that it was raising its dividend by 20%, helping to alleviate ongoing concerns over [...]

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The Next Frontier For Aerospace and Defense ETFs

Cathy Carlson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:08:31 +0000

Few industries will look back on the last several years fondly, remembering a stretch of surging demand and reliable sources of organic growth. But for aerospace and defense firms, the last decade has been a remarkable run, including the last two years that saw many other corners of the economy battered by the recession. Ongoing–and occasionally escalating–initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan have boosted bottom lines for manufacturers of weapons and defense systems. But the recent boom may now be drawing to a close, forcing this recession-proof sector to look elsewhere for expansion opportunities. “For the past decade, U.S. defense firms have enjoyed strong growth, as Pentagon budgets doubled to roughly $700 billion a year amid wartime spending,” writes Nathan Hodge. “Now companies are bracing for a downturn and looking to foreign customers to cushion the blow.”Boeing, the Chicago-based defense contractor that generates significant revenues from the U.S. government, plans to [...]

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Wednesday’s ETF To Watch: ITA

Eric Dutram — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:14 +0000

Last week investors were extremely disappointed with America’s largest conglomerate GE, which released its quarterly earnings on Friday. The company earned $3.11 billion, or 28 cents a share, compared with $2.69 billion, or 25 cents, in the year-ago period. But revenues slipped by 4%, sending shares plummeting by more than 4% and it putting several sectors of the economy in which GE operates on notice. On Wednesday, investors will be looking towards United Technologies (UTX) and its earnings report. While definitely not as well-known as GE, UTX is also a large, multinational manufacturer that makes everything from aircraft engines (under the Pratt & Whitney brand) to elevators (with the Otis name) to military equipment (including the Black Hawk helicopter). Unlike GE, UTX has virtually no exposure to the financial market, as it has does not have a capital division. This makes UTX more of a pure play on the broad [...]

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Rare Earth Metal Shortage Could Sink These Three ETFs

Eric Dutram — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:04:01 +0000

While most investors are relatively familiar with metals such as gold and copper, few know anything about an increasingly vital group of resources known as “rare earths.” As the name suggests, these metals are very scarce, but are needed for a variety of modern technologies ranging from alternative fuels to consumer electronics to defense and security systems. As demand for these modern goods has surged in recent years, it has put a strain on existing rare earth supplies. Historically, the chief supplier of rare earth metals to the U.S. was China, but that arrangement has been called into question as the Asian superpower continues to expand and Beijing has decided to keep more home grown resources within the confines of the Great Wall. A huge step in this policy came earlier this month as China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that foreign shipments of rare earth metals came in at just [...]

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All American ETF Options

Michael Johnston — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:45:02 +0000

Happy Fourth of July from the team at ETF Database! Given the chaos of recent weeks in financial markets, investors should be thrilled to relax with fireworks, family gatherings, and good old-fashioned barbecues. To celebrate the Fourth, we take a timeout from talks of double dips, oil spills, unemployment to highlight five all-American ETFs that could put a little patriotic flair into any portfolio: Build America Bond Portfolio (BAB) This ETF seeks to replicate the BofA Merrill Lynch Build America Bond Index, which is designed to track the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated Build America Bonds publicly issued by U.S. states and territories, and their political subdivisions. Build America Bonds are a relatively new security, but have become tremendously popular; it’s estimated that eligible governments have issued more than $100 billion in Build America Bonds since they were introduced a little over a year ago as part of the American Recovery [...]

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ETF Database » ITA

SPDR Attack: State Street Rolls Out More Sector ETFs

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