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…
There are just a few more trading days left in 2016 for investors to sell losing stocks and ETFs in order to harvest tax losses with which to offset investment gains elsewhere or ordinary income for the year. Given the post-election rally and string of new highs, investors probably have fewer losing stocks to sell—admittedly…
The ETF Analyzer, Sector SPDR Edition for December 2016 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…
The ETF Analyzer, Sector SPDR Edition for November 2016 is ready for download. This monthly publication has succinct one-page reports on each of the 11 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…
Shares of McKesson Corporation (MCK) are off more than 20% today after the company missed consensus forecasts in this morning’s quarterly earnings report. Net profits for the quarter fell by about half versus last year, as management revised its forward guidance sharply lower. Several of McKesson’s competitors also sold off, following comments on the earnings call that a competitor…
Investors have put record amounts into Emerging Market bond ETFs for the past two quarters. But with so much money chasing yields, is there still good value to be had? To find out, we examined the iShares J.P. Morgan Emerging Market Bond ETF (EMB), the largest and most liquid fund in this category, with about…
The iShares MSCI Thailand ETF (THD) is up more than 3% today even as the broader Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is off about 1%. In what may be a reverse case of “buy the rumor, sell the news”, Thai stocks had declined about 10% in recent sessions on worries that King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s poor health was unstable and…