Altavista Research

Low interest rates and a sluggish economy are among the factors punishing the financial services sector and the related exchange-traded funds this year. What Happened: The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF), the largest ETF dedicated to this sector, is lower by 21.05% year to date. That's...

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) both disappointed investors this earnings season, pressuring some exchange traded funds with large weights to the stocks. That includes the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLC). What To Know XLC devotes over 42...

An array of China-focused exchange traded funds are benefiting as Chinese equities lead emerging markets higher this year. When considering China ETFs, U.S. investors often lean toward traditional funds. Investors leaning that way may want to consider a newer fund that compares...

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLV), the largest exchange traded fund tracking the S&P 500's second-largest sector weight, is up just 5.84 percent, underscoring the point that after an impressive 2018, health care stocks are lagging this year. While health care has yet to shed...

The Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE), the largest equity-based energy exchange traded fund, is higher by 16 percent this year. XLE's strong start to 2019 underscores the energy sector's redemption story this year, but not all analysts are impressed. What Happened In a new research note...

The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF), the largest financial services exchange traded fund by assets, tumbled 13 percent last year, underscoring the sector's status as one of the worst-performing groups in the S&P 500. Moreover, financial services stocks and ETFs were epic...

Equally weighting securities is one of the oldest and most widely used alternatives to weighting securities by market capitalization. There are hundreds of equal-weight exchange traded funds on the market today. Some go beyond equally weighting stocks or bonds, offering investors exposure to an...

Due in large part to weakness in the FANG stocks, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLC) is off to rocky start. XLC debuted in June, ahead of the September launch of the communication services sector. The sector is a refreshed version of the stodgy old telecommunications group....

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLY), the largest exchange traded fund tracking the sector, was up 6.6 percent year-to-date as of Monday. That's the second-best performance among the nine legacy sector SPDR ETFs, trailing only the Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLK)....

Reminding investors that nothing, at least not in financial markets, moves up in a straight line, the fabled FAANG quintet has recently encountered selling pressure. FAANG membership consists of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Netflix Inc. (...

Exchange-traded funds tracking European equities are popular destinations this year for U.S. investors in search of value. Data confirm as much. “But the big take-away from the May data comes from looking under the hood, which shows that foreign assets are capturing an outsized share of...

Data confirm exchange-traded funds set another torrid pace in terms of adding assets in May. What else was confirmed was investors' interest in ex-U.S. developed markets ETFs, including Europe funds. “The headline number for new money flowing into Exchange Traded Funds moderated in May to...

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLY), the largest exchange-traded fund tracking that sector, is up 13.3 percent year to date and recently touched an all-time high. XLY's 2017 performance is good for one of the best among the sector SPDR ETFs and, as has previously been the...

The Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLU), the largest utilities exchange traded fund by assets, is up 6.6 percent year-to-date. Although that lags the 7.2 percent returned by the S&P 500, it can be argued the performances delivered by XLU and rival utilities ETFs are pleasant surprises....

The exchange-traded funds industry keeps breaking its own assets under management records. For example, the global ETF industry had more than $3.9 trillion in combined assets under management at the end of the first quarter, up from the prior record of over $3.8 trillion set at the end of February...