Global

Factors fluctuate between periods of under and out performance. In addressing the question of what worked in the trailing 12-months, our results indicate that factors based on analyst revisions, which investors tend to believe do not work well anymore, performed solidly. Factors based on earnings quality and valuation also produced positive returns. A common question [...]

The number of new exchange-traded products and the assets they contain jumped once again in July, despite the fact that average daily trading volumes declined. By the time July drew to a close, assets in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) worldwide had jumped another 2.4%, bringing the gains in ETF assets to 13.9% so far this year, [...]

Mining industry behemoth BHP Billiton (BLT.LN) has been hit by a double whammy: the nosedive in major metals and commodity prices, and its recent lavish capital spending – leaving the company likely to report a negative earnings surprise. Metals and mining companies like BHP Billiton PLC (BLT.LN) rode the wave of the commodities bull market [...]

July was another difficult month for investors, as Spain’s financial and economic crisis deepened and the eurozone’s problems spread well beyond its borders. The themes that have dominated the direction of global financial markets and determined the shape of investors’ returns continued to prevail during July. Indeed, the only “new” investment theme to emerge is [...]

Analysts anticipate sluggish growth in lowering their forecasts for earnings growth rates lower. In the heart of second-quarter earnings season, solid earnings reports have helped give a more positive tone to the stock market with about two-thirds of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index reporting results that were better than expected. What remains [...]

Market volatility may be making investors wary about the stock market, but they continue to find exchange-traded funds and other products alluring, as new industry data shows, despite a small dip in ETF assets in Europe. The world of exchange-traded funds keeps getting larger, week by week and month by month, as new data made [...]

Here are three issues that have dominated financial markets and appear likely to continue to shape investor returns and thus be worth monitoring: the risk on/risk off trend, commodity prices and the slowing global economy, and the downturn in corporate earnings growth. Over the last three quarters, three outsize themes have dominated financial market performance [...]

Something that looks cheap sometimes turns out to be just a value trap into which unwary investors may tumble, so when looking for pockets of value (or growth), it’s important to look at data in the proper context. Second only to “where’s the growth?”, the question dominating investors’ minds these days has to be “where’s [...]

The underwhelming jobs data released in the United States Friday will simply add to the pressure for the Fed to embark on a third round of quantitative easing – but can central banks afford it? Job creation in the United States remains too weak to put a dent in the country’s unemployment rate, currently hovering [...]

A new approach to asset allocation seeks to combine equity-like returns with reduced volatility. As any chart will tell you, an investor looking for the best long-term returns should concentrate on equities, which historically have generated returns that in the long run have been superior to those that can be gleaned from investing in bonds. [...]