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 the market to bring investors the best brokerage offering in the industry today,” said Kathleen A. Murphy, president of Personal Investing at Fidelity Investments. “Simply put, we’re offering the broadest selection of commission-free ETFs from the undisputed ETF leader, and it’s only available through Fidelity.” [click to continue…]
Over the last several years, investors have embraced the benefits of the exchange-traded structure, transforming ETFs from a closet industry to a mainstream investment option that threatens to continually grab market share from traditional actively-managed mutual funds. As the popularity of ETFs has surged, so too has the number of funds available to investors. While the majority of assets remain in ETFs linked to well known stock and bond indexes, ongoing innovation in the industry has produced dozens of ETFs that utilize various weighting methodologies, proprietary screening processes, and even asset allocation strategies to determine holdings. [click to continue…]
So much for a slow December.
The latest National Stock Exchange numbers are out, and December was one of the best months on record for the ETF industry. Total cash inflows totaled nearly $30 billion, as investors flocked to domestic equities in the final month of the year. Nearly every issuer saw a big jump in [...]
Following a year that saw some of the worst performances in recent memory, many asset classes have bounced back in 2009. But some have performed better than others, and as the year draws to a close we take a look at some of the best-performing ETFs. The year’s top gainers include a few of the [...]
Unemployment was the story of the day on Friday, as a report from the Labor Department showed that unemployment unexpectedly declined to 10.0% in November. Only 11,000 jobs were shed in the U.S., the best monthly showing since December 2007. Economists had predicted a loss of 125,000 jobs and an unemployment rate holding steady at [...]
The recovery showed signs of falling into chaos on Thursday, with Treasury Secretary Geithner facing a firestorm in Washington as lawmakers called for his resignation and Dell reported a decline in profits of more than 50%. Elsewhere in the world, EU leaders (as expected) selected Belgian Premier Herman van Rompuy as the bloc’s first full-time [...]
The wild ride on Wall Street continued on Thursday, with stocks posting big gains as Starbucks and CBS posted profits and retail sales moved slightly higher for the last month. Cisco led tech stocks higher, driving the Dow to a gain of more than 200 points for the first time in three months. The ETFdb [...]
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s been another good month for the ETF industry. A continued strong performance from the equity markets gave investors a boost, and cash continued to flow into ETFs. According to data from the National Stock Exchange, total ETF assets increased from $650 billion in July to [...]
The old saying “any publicity is good publicity” certainly seems to ring true in the ETF industry. Over the last several months, leveraged ETFs have been the subject of intense scrutiny, first from individual investors and analysts, and more recently from regulatory agencies such as FINRA. Despite allegations that these funds are dishonest products that [...]
Total ETF industry assets increased by $5.7 billion, or about 1.0%, during the month of June, driven by both new fund offerings and creation of additional units in existing funds. Among the other highlights from the monthly statistical bulletin released by SSgA:
The reduced cost structure of ETFs relative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds is no doubt responsible for a substantial portion of the billions of investor dollars that have poured into these securities in recent years. But investors seeking enhanced flexibility are also flocking to ETFs from mutual funds, attracted by unique features that expand the realm [...]
In the week during which the Obama administration will unveil details surrounding its plan to revamp the regulation of the U.S. financial sector, calls for increased oversight of the ETF industry are picking up steam as well. Scott Burns, director of ETF Analysis at Morningstar, recently laid out a case for increased regulatory requirements for ETFs [...]
