ETFs have long been a favorite vehicle for short sellers, not only because they are easy to borrow—market makers can always create more shares when demand is sufficient—but also because they allow investors to easily express a negative view on a particular asset class or sector without taking on single-stock risk. But short interest in…
The ETF Analyzer, Sector SPDR Edition for February 2017 is ready for download. This monthly publication has succinct one-page reports on each of the 10 Select Sector SPDR ETFs in three easy-to-read sections: Investment Summary, Fundamentals, and Composition. It helps investors: Evaluate the funds based on investment merit using fundamental data and analysis Compare the Sector SPDRs with ease on…
Athletic apparel maker Under Armour Inc today reported Q4 2016 earnings results that missed Wall Street’s expectations, causing shares to plunge by about 25% as of this writing. The company also set disappointing guidance going forward and said that its CFO would resign for personal reasons. The tanking share prices affect not only investors who…
Over the weekend we initiated coverage of 39 new ETFs, totaling about $341 million in assets under management. Two thirds of them are classified as “Smart Beta” funds, while one third are traditional beta. One of the most significant may be the ALPS Dorsey Wright Sector Momentum ETF (SWIN), which will bring more some competition…
Market share gains by “Smart Beta” ETFs appear to have all but stalled last year. By our calculations, assets under management (AUM) grew by just one half of one percentage point to 28.8% of all equity ETFs, excluding leveraged and inverse funds. Back at the end of 2010, smart beta funds had a market share of 18.3% of AUM (Figure 1). Our…
It’s still early in reporting season, but early results indicate that Financials were likely the largest single contributor to S&P 500 earnings growth during the fourth quarter of 2016. With only about 10% of S&P 500 firms having reports results—and using consensus expectations for the remaining 90%—we calculate that overall index earnings likely grew by about…
Twenty-sixteen is likely to go down as another record year for passive investments. According to Morningstar, investors plowed $429 billion into ETFs and other index funds in the first 11 months of the year, while yanking some $285 billion from traditional actively managed mutual funds. ETFs probably garnered about half of cash tsunami that flowed…
Shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles crashed today as the Environmental Protection Agency accused the company of violating U.S. laws by using software to help its diesel vehicles meet emissions standards in lab tests. Bloomberg News reports that the company’s liability could be as much as $4.6 billion, which comes just days after Volkswagen AG agreed to…
The ETF Analyzer, Sector SPDR Edition for January 2017 is ready for download. This monthly publication has succinct one-page reports on each of the 10 Select Sector SPDR ETFs in three easy-to-read sections: Investment Summary, Fundamentals, and Composition. It helps investors: Evaluate the funds based on investment merit using fundamental data and analysis Compare the Sector SPDRs with ease…