Following Friday’s jobs report, which came at the end of a week full of widely-anticipated data releases, trading got off to a slow start Monday, as most benchmarks finished nearly unchanged on the day. Overseas, Greek Prime Minister called on U.S. officials to investigate speculation in currency markets, alleging that current borrowing costs threatened to derail the country’s fragile financial state. “We will have a very hard time implementing our reform program if the gains from our austerity measures are swallowed up by prohibitive interest rates,” said George Papandreou. [click to continue…]
The tech-heavy Nasdaq hit its highest close in 18 months on Friday, as stocks were buoyed by a jobs report that kept unemployment flat at 9.6%. Thanks to the jobs report and renewed confidence in an economic recovery, the price of oil soared, finishing near $81.50 a barrel, within striking distance of its 2010 high. Meanwhile, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave a speech to the National People’s Congress in which he detailed Chinese budget plans and a proposal to hike spending by 11% this year, which helped to send most Chinese ETFs higher. [click to continue…]
Historically, no portfolio was complete without a material allocation to real estate. Consistently high real returns and low correlations to stocks and bonds made it easy to overlook the out-of-whack fundamentals that ultimately led to an unprecedented collapse. But when real estate markets got a reality check in late 2008, many investors swore off the [...]
The reasons for the rise of the ETF industry are numerous: intraday liquidity, (potentially) superior tax efficiency, and enhanced transparency relative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds have all contributed to the billions of dollars of inflows that these funds have seen in recent years. But the real attraction for most ETF investors is the reduced [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has made commodity investing readily available to millions of investors whose options for exposure to this “fourth asset class” were previously limited. Most of the money in commodity exchange-traded products is in diversified funds offering exposure to more than a dozen natural resources through a single security (see a [...]
Once considered a vital “return enhancer” in almost every portfolio, real estate as an asset class has fallen out of favor with investors following its spectacular collapse during (and role in causing) the recent global economic downturn. Real estate was historically embraced because of its potential for delivering excess returns in bull property markets and [...]
The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, better known as the VIX, has been one of the most carefully-watched benchmarks since its inception in the early 1990s. In 2004, VIX futures gave investors a way to actually invest in the benchmark, as did VIX options in 2006 (both won the Most Innovative Product award at [...]
Direxion, the ETF issuer known for pioneering and popularizing 3x leveraged ETFs, has added two new funds: Daily Real Estate Bull 3x Shares (DRN) and Daily Real Estate Bear 3x Shares (DRV). Both new ETFs, which began trading last week, track the MSCI U.S. REIT Index, a broad-based benchmark that represents approximately 85% of the U.S. [...]
With a roller coaster six months behind us that saw no shortage of interesting twists and turns and unsuspected headlines, we’ve finally reached the midway point of 2009. Ahead of us is the highly anticipated “second half of 2009,” which for months we’ve heard will hold returns to growth, a recovering economy, and enough green [...]
As the first half of 2009 draws to a close, it seems that we’re finally starting to see things return to some semblance of normality. Equity markets have rallied sharply since bottoming out in March. Volatility is back within its historical range after hitting record highs over the past year. And politicians in Washington have [...]
As the Chinese economy has surged over the last decade, investors unafraid to reach beyond their borders and embrace international equity investments have been handsomely rewarded. As a result of easing economic barriers and sound economic policies, China has now passed Germany for the number three spot on the list of the world’s largest economies. [...]
As a result of the seemingly endless decline in the U.S. housing market (we’re nearing the three year mark for the current downturn), most real estate ETFs on the market have been posted huge losses since 2007, with many still down more than 50% from their record highs despite recent rallies. But as any shrewd investor [...]
