News Mentions & Press Releases
JPMorgan Chase & Co. launched an exchange-traded fund last June that invests in Japanese stocks. The fund raised $1.7 billion in six weeks, making it one of the fastest ETFs ever to surpass $1 billion in assets.
The biggest buyers: JPMorgan’s clients.
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Buying stocks or other securities with high returns.
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iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF
Everyone loves high quality! How could they not? The word “quality” is synonymous with “good,” and in almost all fields of human endeavor, high quality is viewed more favorably than low quality. When you go looking for a new car, do you ask for a low-quality one?
But quality investments are particularly important during volatile and unpredictable markets. The reason is simple: higher-quality companies have more confident management, which may have a greater ability to weather market downturns. These companies typically provide increased stability and have the potential to outperform over time as they tend to have higher profitability, stronger balance sheets, and consistent earnings growth.
But don’t take my word for it. There is a lot of empirical evidence and many academic studies emphasizing the benefits of quality investments. Here are a few of my favorites…
U.S. stocks rebounded Friday, propelled by a rise in energy shares as investors analyzed a batch of new economic data and waited for signs on U.S.-China trade talks.
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Smart beta has become synonymous with the ETF universe, soaring in popularity after the 2008 financial crisis. By Morningstar’s measure, there are almost 700 smart beta ETFs in the marketplace (30% of the total). With this explosion of launches and products (factor, multifactor, double factor, comprehensive factor, diversified; you get the point) the natural question is: do these products truly work? I don’t have a firm answer because of the sheer number of ways to measure “work” and the fact that time is needed to assess any product’s performance. However, I found some interesting results by reviewing the equity smart beta space in aggregate to see if more launches are adding or subtracting value.
This was definitely a crude attempt but an important assessment of the universe. I reviewed three different measures (you could look at infinitely more) that would be natural fits when observing performance. In each, I used the Morningstar category index, or the index assigned to a particular ETF, to measure performance. Note this is not the ETF’s underlying benchmark, nor is it the Morningstar category return.
U.S. stocks rose modestly Wednesday, as investors kept an eye on U.S.-China trade talks in Washington and awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting later in the afternoon.
What are stock indexes doing?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15 points, or 0.1%, to 25,906, while the S&P 500 index rose 2 points, or 0.1%, to 2782. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 20 points, or 0.3%, at 7,506.
What’s driving the market?
Trade remains in the spotlight despite few concrete developments. Stocks appeared to find some support Tuesday after President Donald Trump said there was nothing “magical” about a March 1 deadline for U.S.-China negotiations, which was taken as a sign that tariffs on imports of Chinese goods might not automatically be raised to 25% from 10% on that date if a formal deal hasn’t been completed.
There will be more actively managed and eventually even nontransparent ETFs coming to market in the future, but not every strategy lends itself to that structure.
That’s one of the main takeaways from a panel at the Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Florida.
Actively managed ETFs have a better risk profile in less efficient markets but don’t belong in funds focusing on alternatives, said Shana Sissel, portfolio manager at CLS Investments.
They provide more choice for investors, especially for taxable accounts, said Dodd Kittsley, national director at Davis Advisors funds, whose current ETF lineup includes active and passive funds.
My wife and I were doing our grocery shopping at Costco recently, and while we were browsing the snack section, she spotted some pistachios. For anyone who has snacked on pistachios before, you probably know that they are far more expensive than many other nuts, such as almonds or peanuts. But as I reached for the house brand to save a few dollars, my wife stopped me and said she wanted to go with the more popular brand, even though it cost almost twice as much! Fortunately, Costco was offering some samples of the house brand that day, and after trying a few, my wife was persuaded.
I’m sure we can all relate to this classic consumer/domestic battle, and I must admit, I am also guilty of this irrational behavior. Humans tend to choose the product they know and are often willing to pay a premium for it, even when it’s identical to a cheaper brand. This irrational behavior can also be seen in investing. Investors like to stick with the stocks they know, and this often means investors are confined by a home-country bias.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 300 points Tuesday, the blue-chip index’s first decline in five trading sessions, as concerns over trade and global growth resurfaced.
Stocks opened the holiday-shortened week on shaky footing after the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global economic growth in 2019, forcing investors to again confront the possibility that some major economies around the world, including China and Europe, are weakening faster than expected.
CLS Chief Investment Strategist Marc Pfeffer sits down as the Big Interview guest on Money Life with Chuck Jaffe. Marc discusses why investors should continue to take a long-term outlook despite the recent market decline. Plus, impacts of the ongoing trade war and other political tensions.