The competitive landscape of the ETF industry has evolved rapidly over the last several years, with several new players–both big and small–making a push into the space. From financial giants such as RBS and Citi to relative unknowns such as Javelin and Precidian, the roster of active ETF issuers has grown to nearly four dozen. Now, mirroring a trend playing out in the lineup of exchange-traded products, it appears that some contraction is in order. Coming months could see a few ETP issuers wiped off the map, as a series of fund closures and mergers should reduce the number of companies that market exchange-traded products [see also ETF Update: Pipeline Continues To Fill]. [click to continue…]
The past few weeks have seen violent behavior in equity indexes as a slew of negative news and data led to some of the most volatile trading days since the 2008 crash. The problems largely began with the debt debate that took longer than expected, while the solution reached seemed to do little to convince [...]
The summer months generally bring a slowdown in trading activity on Wall Street, so it isn’t surprising that product development activity has seemingly slowed a bit in the ETF industry as of late. After dozens of new product launches in previous months, just ten new ETFs debuted in July according to the ETF Launch Center. [...]
Van Eck announced last week a partnership with Merrill Lynch that may ultimately lead to the conversion of several HOLDRS products to soon-to-be-launched Market Vectors ETFs. As part of the agreement, Van Eck will introduce six new ETFs that maintain the same tickers as the existing HOLDRS but that will be part of the Market [...]
Equity markets were broadly higher on Wednesday as investors rejoiced over a robust China GDP report and stimulating words from Chairman Bernanke. “The possibility remains that the recent weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying additional policy support,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee, in the first [...]
Although equity markets experienced a rough session in Thursday trading, 2011 has seen a pretty solid start for most sectors of the American economy. Over the past few weeks, financials have been among the biggest gainers thanks to moderating fears over the European debt crisis as well as a solid outlook from a variety of [...]
Now that the financial crisis appears to finally be subsiding, many regulators and economists have shifted their focus away from containment and towards prevention, seeking to ensure that a similar meltdown does not devastate markets again. Over the weekend, regulators finally hammered out a plan to force banks to limit risk and keep more adequate [...]
After the passage of a controversial health care bill earlier this year, many analysts wondered if the Obama administration lacked the political capital to push through comprehensive financial reform as the next big domestic issue. After various packages met stiff resistance on several occasions, Senators passed the financial regulation overhaul bill on Thursday in a [...]
What seemed to be a stable market recovery has encountered some turbulence in recent weeks, as lingering uncertainty in the euro zone has rippled throughout the global economy. Recent market volatility–the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) has posted a remarkable gain of 45.4% over the past month–has caused a variety of responses [...]
For the most part, ETFs are pretty similar regardless of which issuer is behind the fund. But as many investors know, there’s one notable exception to this rule. The HOLDRS products from Merrill Lynch are similar to traditional ETFs in many ways, but also feature some nuances that make them very different in others. HOLDRS [...]
March 9, 2009 is a date etched into the memories of many investors. After months of unprecedented volatility, depressing statistical releases, and countless false bottoms, that’s the day most equity markets finally hit their lows. It also marked the beginning of an impressive rally that saw most major indexes climb steadily for the remainder of [...]
