Another eventful week has passed us by, leaving investors with plenty to chew on as they try and figure out hectic markets. The week started off with the closing of four ETFs, as Claymore‘s said goodbye to IRO, CRO, EXB, and ROB as the four failed to attract any meaningful amount of assets [see Four ETFs To Close Their Doors]. Intel announced the acquisition of software and spyware company McAffe, shooting its share price up nearly 60% in one trading day. While certain individual securities had strong performances, markets as a whole took a turn for the worse late in the week as first time unemployment claims surged past expectations to hit the half million mark, reigniting fears of an economic slowdown. The recurring fear of a double-dip sparked a major inflow to gold and Treasury funds as investor confidence was stunted in light of this weak data. For investors trying to make sense of all of the recent chaos we profile three of the best ETF stories from around the Web from the last week: [click to continue…]
Although many of the largest and most popular exchange-traded funds offer exposure to equities, it is another corner of the ETF market that has been primarily responsible for the impressive growth spurt that the industry has enjoyed over the last several years. In 2009, commodity ETFs saw cash inflows of more than $30 billion. Through [...]
The first half of 2010 is in the books, and it is no surprise that the ETF industry has continued to grow at an impressive rate. According to the latest data from the National Stock Exchange, the universe of exchange-traded products saw almost $40 billion of cash inflows during the first six months of the [...]
ETF Securities, the giant in the European ETF scene that made the jump to the U.S. market last year, announced this week that it plans to issue new shares of two of its most popular physically-backed commodity ETFs. Effective May 26, the number of shares registered for the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) increased from [...]
As debt concerns continue to plague the euro zone, many investors are beginning to temper their expectations for global growth in 2010. As the wave of uncertainty washes over markets, investors have been flocking to safe havens, sending gold prices to all-time highs. Other precious metals haven’t been quite so fortunate; an increased possibility of [...]
At the height of the recent financial crisis, it appeared that one of the oldest and most iconic American industries would become one of the biggest casualties. The automotive industry was already reeling from a major dip in demand for its most profitable products when gas prices surged, and the dawn of one of the [...]
When ETF Securities finally cleared the last of the regulatory hurdles last year and geared up to introduce the first physically-backed platinum and palladium ETFs, investor interest quickly surged. Although futures-based exposure to platinum had been available for several years, exposure to physical bullion prices represents an entirely different asset class–apparently one that investors were [...]
With the end of the first quarter coming to a close, many equity markets continued their slow but steady climb higher last week, with some even touching new 18 month highs. The week ahead will bring a slew of data releases and earnings reports that should test the strength of the current rally. Below, we [...]
Historically, precious metals investing for U.S. investors has been limited to gold and, to a lesser extent, silver. But recent innovation in the space has doubled the available resources; earlier this year, London-based ETF Securities launched the ETFS Physical Platinum Trust (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Trust (PALL), the first physically-backed ETFs offering exposure to [...]
After weathering a severe and prolonged downturn that saw multiple bankruptcies, unprecedented government intervention, and the near demise of the entire industry, American automakers finally have some good news to report. Ford sold more cars than rival General Motors for the first time in 50 years in February (excluding two months in 1998 when GM [...]
The proliferation of commodity ETFs has brought this “fourth asset class” within reach of more investors than ever before. But as many have learned the hard way, resource fundamentals are only one of the factors that impact many exchange-traded commodities, and the nuances of the futures market often have a more significant impact than changes [...]
