The first half of 2011 is officially in the books, and many investors find their portfolios in approximately the same place as they were to start the year (though a furious rally in the final week of the quarter gave a nice boost at an opportune moment). Most major equity indexes are up slightly on the year, while fixed income benchmarks have similarly hovered around breakeven. Beyond these broad generalizations, there are some significant performance discrepancies among exchange-traded products that may seem to offer up similar risk/return profiles.
The following tables highlight the top performers from every ETFdb Category during the first six months of the year, shedding some light on the asset classes that have struggled and thrived so far in 2011–and reinforcing that the seemingly minor distinctions between ETPs can lead to big differences in performance [for monthly updates on the best performers, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: [click to continue…]
The last week was an up-and-down stretch for global equity markets, as the intensifying crisis in Greece dominated headlines and investors scrambled to analyze the potential fallout from what seems increasingly likely to be a default on sovereign debt obligations. The jump in equity markets–which snapped a six week losing streak–wasn’t really attributable to good [...]
After a sixth consecutive week of losses, investors will be looking for some indication that the steady losses have been a bit of overkill and that a bounce back is warranted in coming sessions. Equity markets have tumbled past key technical and psychological levels in recent weeks, and anxiety is once again running high both [...]
As we put the finishing touches on 2010, the year has shaped up to be one of the most eventful in recent memory for global markets as a number of important events impacted the world economy. Among the events that dominated financial headlines this year were an (ongoing) sovereign debt crisis, the flash crash, a [...]
As the value of the U.S. dollar continues to slide, many investors have embraced commodities as an opportunity for generating solid returns in an uncertain environment. ETNs and ETFs tracking various commodities have performed extremely well over the past few months, as concerns over QE have combined with ongoing supply worries in a variety of [...]
Initially, the response from the markets to Ben Bernanke and Company’s historic attempt to revitalize the markets with a second round of QE was rather muted; U.S. markets stayed relatively flat yesterday after the Fed meeting, and volumes were well within a normal range. But overseas investors apparently had much stronger opinions on the ramifications [...]
As the ETF world continues to expand, one of the most popular market segments has become the commodity ETF space, which has seen countless innovations over the past few years. One product that has begun to attract a great deal of attention is the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee ETN (JO), which has seen renewed interest [...]
After a turning in a strong finish to 2010, most commodity ETFs have fallen in recent months as investors have piled into the relative safety of U.S. dollar as an alternative to risky assets during these tumultuous times. This flight to the greenback has tempered demand for many commodities, the vast majority of which are [...]
Whenever a company prepares for a public offering, executives have been known to spend an inordinate amount of time choosing the combination of letters that will serve as the company’s ticker and often nickname within the investment community. To many, the fixation on selecting the perfect ticker seems like an irrational obsession on par with [...]
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 [...]
Soft commodities were active on Thursday, with sugar futures surging to their highest level in more than three weeks and coffee futures jumping on worries of supply dips in coming months. Heavy rains in Brazil, the world’s top sugar producer, disrupted output and sent mills scrambling to renegotiate contracts with trading houses after production levels [...]
