Fitch Ratings

Since the start of this year, bank-heavy exchange traded funds, such as the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF) and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking (ETF) (NYSE: KRE), have been hoping and waiting for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Nearly nine months into the year, with...

Every so often, headlines of a credit rating downgrade will be followed by news of a 10 or 20 percent drop in a stock’s share price. While most long-time investors are familiar with the idea that credit rating upgrades are good and downgrades are bad, they are not all familiar with the...

Emerging markets are hot this year, but their frontier counterparts are badly trailing. For example, a widely followed benchmark of frontier markets is up just 1 percent year-to-date. The Market Vectors Vietnam ETF. (NYSE: VNM) is barely better with a gain of 1.1 percent. Tailwinds Forthcoming?...

The Global X MSCI Colombia ETF (NYSE: GXG) is one of this year's best-performing single-country emerging markets exchange-traded funds, with a gain of 30.4 percent. Bullishness for GXG and Colombian stocks and GXG is largely attributable to rebounding commodities prices, but another catalyst...

The auto industry could be in trouble, as CNBC reported delinquencies in subprime auto loans are on the rise. CNBC, citing data from Fitch Ratings, stated that delinquencies of at least 60 days for subprime auto loans have risen by 13 percent month-over-month in July and are higher by 17 percent...

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) revealed Monday it is acquiring Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN), which has plenty of market participants speculating as to which companies could be the next takeover targets in the pharmaceuticals space. A Pharma ETF Of course, there are exchange-traded funds with which to...

Among emerging markets single-country exchange-traded funds, few have grabbed as many headlines or been the center of as much controversy in recent weeks as the Ishares Msci Turkey Inv Market Index Fd (NYSE: TUR). Turkey And Ratings Immediately following last month's failed coup attempt against...

The Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (NYSE: RSX) is one of this year's best-performing emerging markets single-country exchange-traded funds with a gain of 29 percent. That is well ahead of the 17.3 percent gain posted by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Russia And RSX Much of the ebullience...

The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (ETF) (NYSE: EWZ) is up nearly 68 percent this year, easily making it one of 2016's best performing single-country exchange-traded funds, emerging markets or otherwise. Commodities And Politics Among the catalysts often cited for EWZ's resurgence are rebounding...

Cash ruled everything around the Wu Tang Clan, but it does not rule everything around some of the holdings in the iShares S&P Global Energy Sector (ETF) (NYSE: IXC). When oil prices started faltering over a year ago, a common response by many large U.S. and foreign integrated oil companies was...

As was the case in previous periods of emerging markets strength, Thai stocks and the iShares MSCI Thailand Inv Mrkt Index Fd (NYSE: THD) are excelling this year as broader developing markets benchmarks rebound. The lone dedicated Thailand ETF trading in New York is up 27.7 percent year-to-date,...

Underscoring the vulnerability of U.K. assets in the post-Brexit world, the Guggenheim CurrencyShares British (NYSE: FXB) is lower by nearly 12 percent over the past month. Remembering that when an investor opts for international stocks or funds he or she not only incurs equity risk, but currency...

The Ishares Msci Turkey Inv Market Index Fd (NYSE: TUR) fell almost 3 percent Thursday, bringing the five-day loss for the only exchange-traded fund dedicated to Turkish equities to almost 18 percent. Since last Friday's failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, TUR has been...

Over the past year, none of the exchange-traded funds tracking the PIIGS economies have traded higher. In some cases, the losses incurred by these single-country ETFs are severe, but none are as bad as the Global X MSCI Greece ET (Global X Funds (NYSE: GREK)). GREK, the first and only ETF dedicated...

Thanks in large part to tumbling Treasury yields and investors' desire for lower beta sectors, telecommunications exchange-traded funds, the often overlooked options of the sector ETF universe, are soaring this year. For example, the Vanguard Telecommunication Services ETF (NYSE: VOX) is higher...