With low levels of economic growth predicted for much of the world, demand for many commodities has been modest to say the least. This has helped to keep the price of oil in check and force the commodity to trade in a $20 dollar range between $70-$90 a barrel for much of 2010. While welcomed news for most consumers who have been especially hard hit by the crisis, this has been a terrible development for the alternative power industry which thrives on higher costs for traditional power sources in order to make its products competitive [also read Why Clean Energy ETFs Are No Slam Dunk]. [click to continue…]
It has been more than two months since an oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, setting off one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. The aftermath of the spill has called into question the very survival of British oil giant BP, and dealt a devastating blow to pension funds [...]
Just a few short months ago, oil was approaching $90 a barrel and many were forecasting a run well above the psychologically-important $100 level. However, this optimism proved to be short lived, as equity markets around the world saw shares plunge after trouble in Europe threatened to spill over and contaminate the global economy. With [...]
Equity markets kept winning streaks going last week, as the S&P 500 jumped more than 2% on positive earnings reports and better-than-expected sales on new homes. Rising oil prices–crude inched higher to finish the week above the $85–gave the energy sector a boost. With even more earnings reports ahead, U.S. markets figure to be active [...]
Alternative energy remains a fast growing market segment not only in the world of ETFs, but in terms of total investment as well. Since 2005, investment in clean energy increased by 230% to $162 billion in 2009. Echoing similar trends occurring throughout the global economy, emerging markets have stepped up their push to become leaders [...]
Although equity markets generally headed higher in the first quarter of 2010, there were a few funds that were not so lucky and became the early leaders in the Laggard of The Year race. The S&P 500 finished the quarter up close to 6%, but European markets stumbled in the wake of an on-and-off crisis [...]
The ETF industry has been credited with bringing exotic asset classes and investment strategies within the reach of all levels of investors. But it has also provided a potentially better way to invest in asset classes and industries that have historically exhibited significant volatility. Because the ETF structure provides immediate diversification of holdings at a [...]
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 [...]
After surging out of the gates to start the new year, many ETFs have sharply reversed course, now finding themselves in the red for 2010 as January draws to a close. The S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), which was up nearly 3% after the first six trading sessions, is now down almost 2%. The shift in [...]
It’s been an interesting week in the world of ETFs: gold trading was extremely volatile, and world leaders met in Denmark to discuss climate issues. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
On Tuesday, Claymore Securities launched its China Technology ETF (CQQQ), the first U.S.-listed ETF to focus on the Chinese technology sector. CQQQ joins three other China ETFs from Claymore (YAO, HAO, TAO) that have accumulated more than $500 million in aggregate assets. The new ETF will seek to replicate the AlphaShares China Technology Index, a [...]
