Posts Tagged index
Housing Prices Fall at Slower Pace
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on February 25th, 2010
Home prices kept falling, but at a slower rate, at the end of last year as the housing market continued to stabilize.
The national S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index declined 2.5% in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday. The slight drop is a clear improvement from earlier in the recession. In the fourth quarter of 2008, for example, home prices fell 18.2% from the same period in 2007.
“Overall, this report suggests that the recent positive momentum in the U.S. housing market is gaining further traction and underscores that home prices are continuing to stabilize,” Millan Mulraine, a TD Securities analyst, wrote in a note to clients. “As such, we may only be a few months away before we see a monthly gain in national home prices.”
The month-to-month change in home prices for a composite index of 20 housing markets that S&P/Case-Shiller tracks showed that home prices rose 0.3% in December from the prior month, adjusted for normal seasonal variation. That measure of home prices also rose 0.3% in November.Prices fell in just five of the 20 markets included in the survey, remained flat in one and rose in the other 14. Read the rest of this entry »
How funds can hit such different notes
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Fund Markets on January 20th, 2010
Individual investors are often told that index-linked funds are better for them than actively managed offerings. That may be true, but index funds carry their own risks that can catch the unsuspecting.
Look, for example, at two exchange-traded funds that track the same international-stock index — and yet their results last year are significantly different.
IShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM 41.95, -0.49, -1.16%) and Vanguard
Emerging Markets ETF (VWO 41.70, -0.50, -1.18%) both track the MSCI Emerging Markets
Index. But the Vanguard ETF gained just over 76% last year, while the iShares offering was up nearly 72%. The Index itself was up 78.5%.
The difference highlights the varied results index funds can produce and offers a lesson to investors about the best way to choose an indexed investment.
How can investors tell which ETF best tracks its benchmark index and also come to realize that not all indexes are the same? The answer isn’t so straightforward. Read the rest of this entry »
Stronger dollar, weak economic data pummels stocks
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Fund Markets on November 26th, 2009
A stronger dollar and more discouraging signs of a subdued economic recovery triggered a broad sell-off in stocks.
Major indexes tumbled more than 1 percent Thursday, including the Dow Jones industrials, which fell about 133 points.
Energy and material stocks showed the biggest losses as a jump in the dollar sent commodity prices tumbling. Meanwhile, an analyst’s downgrade of the chip sector pulled technology shares sharply lower.
Analysts said the dollar was the biggest force behind Thursday’s trading, as it has been in recent months. A stronger dollar makes commodities more expensive to foreign buyers, and companies that produce the commodities make less money from them.
“There might be a little fear out there about dollar strengthening, as well as some natural profit-taking opportunities,”said Dan Cook, senior market analyst at IG Markets Inc. in Chicago.”We’ve been on an amazing run.” Read the rest of this entry »
Asian Stocks Fall to Two-Week Low
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Fund Markets on November 24th, 2009
Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a two-week low, amid speculation Japanese and Chinese banks will have to sell shares to replenish capital.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s second- largest bank by market value, fell 4.4 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said banks are preparing a new round of share sales. Bank of China Ltd. slumped 4 percent in Hong Kong after saying it’s studying options to raise funds. Suning Appliance Co., China’s biggest home appliance retailer, fell 5.5 percent in Shanghai on valuation concerns.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent to 116.68 as of 6:02 p.m. in Tokyo, set to close at the lowest level since Nov. 6. The gauge has climbed 65 percent from a more than five- year low on March 9 on signs government stimulus measures are helping revive the world economy. A global rally yesterday drove the MSCI World Index up by the most in two weeks.
“Markets have had a huge run on expectations of a recovery,” said Matt Riordan, who helps manage about $5.1 billion at Paradice Investment Management in Sydney. “We’re in a period now where signals that the recovery has been priced in are coming through. The market is discriminating a lot more in terms of stocks.” Read the rest of this entry »
German Business Confidence Rises More Than Forecast
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Trading Markets on November 23rd, 2009
German business confidence increased more than economists forecast to a 15-month high in November, suggesting the economic recovery may gather pace next year.
The Ifo institute in Munich said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, rose to 93.9 from 92 in October, the highest reading since August last year. Economists expected a gain to 92.5, according to the median of 37 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The index reached a 26-year low of 82.2 in March.
Economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as companies replenished inventories and rising export orders prompted factories to ramp up production. The manufacturing industry expanded for a second month in November and the country’s benchmark DAX share index has advanced 20 percent this year. Unemployment, the euro’s strength and the expiry of government stimulus measures may still damp growth in 2010.
Ifo’s “sharper than expected rise” is “another encouraging sign that the economy continued to expand in the fourth quarter,” said Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd in London. “We expect Germany to lead the euro- zone recovery.” Read the rest of this entry »
WORLD FOREX: Euro Choppy After Middling US Retail Sales Data
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Currency, Favourites on November 17th, 2009
The euro traded in choppy waters early in New York Monday, after a slight improvement in U.S. retail sales failed to spark an extension of its overnight gains.
The retail sales report came on the heels of data that showed an expansion in Japanese economic activity, which set the stage for the euro and other higher-yielding currencies to rise against the low-yielding dollar.
But until more convincing data supporting the global economic recovery are released, the euro and its higher-yielding counterparts are likely to remain in their recent ranges, analysts said.
With the morning’s U.S. economic reports out of the way, attention will shift to the 12:15 p.m. EST speech of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in New York for clues as to any changes in monetary policy or the state of the U.S. economy. Read the rest of this entry »
Retail Sales in the U.S. Increase More Than Forecast
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Trading Markets on November 16th, 2009
October retail sales in the U.S. rebounded more than anticipated as demand for autos climbed, easing concern households will curtail spending after government incentives ended.
The 1.4 percent increase followed a 2.3 percent drop in the prior month that was much larger than previously estimated, making last month’s gain less impressive, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Purchases excluding autos rose less than forecast.
Rising demand at retailers from discount chain TJX Cos. to luxury store Saks Inc. may foreshadow a brighter holiday shopping season. Acceleration in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will depend on an improvement in the labor market that has yet to unfold.
“Consumers are looking relatively resilient,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, who projected sales would increase 1.3 percent. “They are spending a little more freely, which bodes well for the holiday season. Given the backdrop of the labor market, this is actually as good as one can hope for.” Read the rest of this entry »
Gold strides onto record turf again
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Banks on October 15th, 2009
Gold rallied to a intraday record Tuesday as the dollar slid to a 14-month low and investors remained concerned about the threat of inflation.
December gold was up $6.30 to $1,063 an ounce after climbing to a high of $1,069.70 earlier in the session. That topped the previous intraday record of $1,062.70 an ounce on Oct. 8.
Gold has been on a record-breaking run since prices rose firmly above $1,000 an ounce last month. Many analysts expect the rally to continue into next year.
“We’ve had a weakening dollar today which has definitely been supportive of gold prices,” said Carlos Sanchez, a precious metals analyst at New York-based CPM Group, adding that inflation is “a long-term concern” for many investors.
While prices could “taper off” following the current rally, “overall we still expect prices to head higher next year,” he added.
The market has been supported by speculation that the weak dollar will continue to depreciate as the U.S. budget deficit swells and investors flock to higher yielding currencies. Read the rest of this entry »
Watching those dollar correlations
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Currency, Favourites on October 12th, 2009
The dollar’s decline — enough so far to trigger intervention from some Asian central banks — should dominate investors’ attention in the coming week if only because of the way it is so closely matched with other assets.
There was a near-perfect negative correlation between the dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, and world stocks as measured by MSCI .MIWD00000PUS in September and early October.
In other words, when the dollar was weak, global stocks nearly always rose, or vice versa.
While this link has eased a bit in the last week, it is still very strong — meaning that dollar-boosting comments such as those on Thursday from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke still have a particularly strong spillover potential.
Bernanke reminded investors that the Fed had the tools at hand to pull back the flood of money it has released into the market — the so-called exit strategy — although it was not likely to act immediately.
Dollar weakness has also been behind the sharp rise in gold prices, which are now at record non-inflation adjusted highs well above $1,000 an ounce. Read the rest of this entry »
U.S. Stock Futures Rise After Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Fund Markets on September 24th, 2009
U.S. stock-index futures advanced after jobless claims unexpectedly decreased, bolstering speculation the economy is recovering.
Citigroup Inc., General Electric Co. and Apple Inc. climbed at least 1 percent after initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to 530,000 last week, 20,000 less than economists predicted. Red Hat Inc. rallied 9.4 percent as the biggest seller of the Linux operating system reported earnings that beat estimates and Bank of America Corp. recommended the shares.
“We’ve turned the corner,” said Tom Wirth, senior investment officer at Chemung Canal Trust Co., which manages $1.6 billion in Elmira, New York. “The latest economic reports are telling us that we might see revenue growth in the fourth quarter. On top of that, interest-rates are so low that stocks seem to be the only game to play.”
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in December gained 0.4 percent to 1,063.5 at 8:46 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 35 points, or 0.4 percent, to 9,752. Nasdaq-100 Index futures increased 0.6 percent to 1,736.
The S&P 500 yesterday dropped from its highest level since October. A 57 percent rally since March 9 has left the measure valued at about 20 times the reported earnings of its companies, the most expensive level since 2004, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg. Read the rest of this entry »
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