The bulls took charge on Wall Street last week as investors reacted positively after a number of encouraging economic data releases. Home builders confidence and existing sales continue to point towards signs of a recovery in the battered down U.S. housing market. Better-than-expected jobless claims also helped restore confidence in the domestic economic recovery. Earnings euphoria also played a key role last week, although so far the results have been a mixed bag; industry giants like Google and Citigroup missed the mark, while Bank of America, IBM, and Intel beat analyst estimates.
ProShares, a leading provider of leveraged and inverse ETFs, announced the launch on Friday of the first ETFs with leveraged and inverse exposure to the biotechnology sector. The Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIB) will seek to provide 200% of the return on the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index for a single day. The UltraShort Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIS) will [...]
As the array of ETF product offerings has expanded in recent years, the biotech space has seen significant activity. Currently, there are five biotech ETFs that have accumulated nearly $3.5 billion in aggregate assets. Each of these funds focuses on stocks in the biotechnology industry, and in many cases there is significant overlap between the [...]
As the ETF industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, continued innovation has enabled investors to achieve more granular exposure than ever through exchange-traded products. Diversified ETFs targeting relatively narrow sectors of the domestic and global economy have multiplied, including funds targeting the airline, gaming, insurance, gold mining, timber, and food and [...]
Biotech ETFs, which saw tremendous gains earlier this week on news that Human Genome Science Inc.’s (HGSI) lupus drug had passed a key clinical trial hurdle, were big winners again on Thursday. The driver this time: news that antibody technology specialist Medarex had agreed to be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. at close to a [...]
