Altavista Research

Considering all the controversy surrounding Great Britain's departure from the European Union, British stocks have been decent performers. Over the past year, the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSE: EWU), the largest U.K. exchange-traded fund trading in the United States, is higher by 4.8...

The energy sector's struggles this year are widely documented, and that includes those of the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE). XLE, the largest equity-based energy exchange-traded fund by assets, is down 6.8 percent, a showing that is particularly alarming when considering the S&P 500...

Exchange-traded funds serve myriads of uses in the world of financial markets and that includes providing another avenue for short sellers. In fact, increased adoption of ETFs has been a boon to professional short sellers. ETFs often feature lower borrow fees than single stocks. It is easy for...

Scores of new exchange-traded funds are constantly coming to market and the pace of new product introductions has been brisk to start 2017. As 2017 goes along and more new ETFs debut, this year will likely play out in similar fashion to previous years for rookie ETFs. Some new ETFs will gain...

Much is made of the impact of higher interest rates on various sectors. For example, conventional wisdom tells investors that financial services stocks often benefit from Federal Reserve tightening cycles while utilities stocks are laggards. Historical data from various tightening cycles, indicate...

Last year represented a tale of two views for utilities stocks and exchange-traded funds. ETFs such as the Utilities SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLU) burst out of the gates early in the year as investors favored defensive, low volatility, high dividend sectors. By virtue of its bond-like characteristics but...

The Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLP) is up about 1.8 percent this week. Perhaps that is the beginning of a comeback for a once hot sector exchange-traded fund that now resides about 7.5 percent below its July highs. Low Beta Sectors' Recent Performance Earlier this year, low...

Among the many corners of the bond market that yield-hungry investors are embracing this year are municipal bonds. The question savvy investors need to be considering right now is whether municipal bonds are inexpensive relative to other fixed income asset classes. Although there has been some...

Here is an interesting statistic courtesy of AltaVista Research: Combined assets under management for low and minimum volatility exchange-traded funds reside around $44 billion today, up from $1 billion at the end of 2011. That is good for annual growth rate of 132 percent, a statistic sure to...

The PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ: QQQ) is the exchange-traded fund investors primarily turn to when looking for exposure to the widely followed NASDAQ-100 Index (NDX). Investors usually seek such exposure because they want exposure to technology. Though down from its highest...

As of July 29, three of the top six components in the S&P 500 were members of the technology sector, the largest sector allocation in the benchmark U.S. equity index. In order, that trio is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB). Tech...

At a time when Treasury yields are near historic lows and the Utilities SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLU) sports a dividend yield of 3.1 percent with a year-to-date return of nearly 20 percent, it is easy to understand investors' enthusiasm for the utilities sector. By virtue of its bond-like...

One of this year's biggest single stock stories is the rise of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares of the e-commerce giant are up 10.3 percent year-to-date and hit another new high last Friday. However, some consumer discretionary exchange-traded funds with large weights to Amazon are...

Among the nine original sector SPDR exchange-traded funds, only two can top the Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLP) on a year-to-date basis. XLP, the largest consumer staples ETF by assets, is up more than 10 percent year-to-date. That is just one data point, but it underscores...

With the Utilities SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLU), the largest utilities exchange traded fund, up nearly 15 percent year-to-date, finding utilities bears is not the easiest of endeavors. That scenario could start to change as the Federal Reserve nears its first interest rate increase of 2016, perhaps...