March 8, 2021
Despite the spike in Treasury yields and the pullback in the equity markets, exchange traded fund investors continue to plow more money into the stock market.
According to State Street Global Advisors, U.S.-listed ETFs are off to their best start ever. Inflows have totaled $152 billion over the first two months of 2021. The inflows for the first two months of the year outstrips the prior best start by over 74%, or $88 billion, in 2017.
“In fact, only the flows from November and December 2020, when the dual headwinds of vaccine timeline and election uncertainty were initially removed, provided a better two-month period. Combining the last two months of 2020 and the first two months of 2021 leads to a total of $309 billion of flows in the past four months. If those four months were a full calendar year, it would rank fifth all-time – a strong testament to the bullish positioning from investors as of late,” Matthew J Bartolini, Head of SPDR Americas Research, St
March 8, 2021
As Bitcoin increases in price, more investors are pondering the cryptocurrency’s underlying investment case and its role in client portfolios.
Much of this conversation revolves around Bitcoin’s status as a store of value. Bitcoin is just 12 years old, young by the standards of financial assets. One of the biggest questions over those 12 years has been its validity as a store of value.
For years, gold has been a safe haven staple for investors considering a physical store of value. Gold cannot be duplicated like fiat money and holds immunity from short-term interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve. However, some cryptocurrency experts posit that Bitcoin could supplant gold as a store of value over time.
Rising Rates Not a Bad Thing for the Invesco KBWD ETF March 8, 2021
With safe haven Treasury notes on the rise, fixed income investors are starting to explore some more options. One promising route is debt within the financial sector, attainable via the
“Like all investing strategies, high-yield ETFs are a bit of a balancing act,” a Kiplinger article explained. “On one hand, stocks that deliver tremendous yield can be enticing because of ‘guaranteed’ paydays that are two times, three times or even five times the typical dividend stock in the S&P 500.”
“But the truth is there are no guarantees on Wall Street,” the article explained further. “Firms that were very generous last quarter sometimes wind up cutting their dividends this quarter or seeing their shares tumble as a result of poor performance.”
Boosted by shelter-in-place orders due to the coronavirus pandemic, videogame equities and exchange funds like the
NERD seeks to track the total return performance of the Roundhill BITKRAFT Esports Index, which tracks the performance of the common stock of exchange-listed companies across the globe that earn revenue from electronic sports, or eSports related business activities.
“Video games have been around for over 50 years, and despite its age, the industry continues to not only grow but also evolve,” writes Morningstar analyst Neil Macker. “During 2020, the pandemic and associated stay-at-home regulations provided a tailwind to the secular trends underpinning the growth of video games as well as some potential evolutionary shifts. The secular trends include the switch to digital downloads and microtransaction growth, with more evolutionary changes including subscription plans and cloud gaming.”
Going Abroad? Consider a Strong Pair of VanEck Growth ETFs March 8, 2021
Data provider FactSet noted that international stock ETFs (excluding ‘global’ funds containing U.S. exposure) took in $31 billion in net new assets in the first two months of 2021 compared to $30 billion in 2020. As such, a pair of funds investors may want to consider are the
China and India present an ideal starting point for novice international investors. According to a Wall Street Journal article, “the International Monetary Fund is projecting 5.5% global GDP growth in 2021, with growth in emerging markets and developing economies as a group projected at 6.3%, led by India (11.5%) and China (8.1%).”