Neil Azous

Given its lengthy bear market, mounting bearish price forecasts and the "more bad news than good news" scenario facing the oil market, it might come as a surprise to some that professional investors are not heavily short the commodity. That is understandable when considering the United States Oil...

It wasn't supposed to be this way for financial services exchange-traded funds. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates last month, doing so for the first time in nearly a decade, and market observers widely expect a couple of more rate hikes this year. Conventional wisdom dictates higher...

Chinese equities started 2016 on an inauspicious note when stocks in Shanghai plunged 7 percent Monday, prompting the closure of equity markets in the world's second largest economy. That glum start to the new year would seem to indicate the right way to play Chinese stocks is with an inverse...

The iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSE: HYG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bnd ETF (NYSE: JNK), the two largest high-yield corporate bond exchange-traded funds by assets, are down an average of 4 percent, but those declines only tell part of the story. Amid a spate of energy...

The United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO), which tracks front month West Texas Intermediate futures, has plunged nearly 39 percent year-to-date. That massive decline comes on the heels of USO's 2014 loss of 42.4 percent. Yet, somehow, someway, USO keeps attracting assets. To be precise,...

Just three exchange-traded funds hit 52-week highs Tuesday. Neither the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP) nor the WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (NYSE: USDU) were among that trio. However, UUP and USDU currently reside an average of about 1 percent below their...

When it comes to exchange-traded funds that hold bank stocks, many U.S. investors focus on familiar ETFs such as the Select Sector Financial Slct Str SPDR Fd (NYSE: XLF) and the iShares Dow Jones US Financial (ETF) (NYSE: IYF), but that domestic bias could be costing those investors opportunity...

Granted, the earnings bar was set low. The stock is still in the doldrums year-to-date and much of the gains seen earlier today have evaporated, but shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) are higher by about 3 percent at this writing. The Chinese e-commerce giant reported third-quarter...

The iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSE: IWM) and other well-known small-cap benchmarks have lagged the S&P 500 in the rally off the market's September lows, but some signs point to small caps erasing those recently established laggard status. For example, investors are showing renewed...

Entering Thursday, PowerShare BuyBack Achievers Fund (ETF) (NYSE: PKW), the largest buyback exchange-traded fund, sported a year-to-date loss of 8.2 percent, or nearly 300 basis points worse than that of the S&P 500. Unless PKW stages an epic reversal in the last three months of 2015, it risks...

The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP), the U.S. Dollar Index tracking exchange traded funds, and the actively managed WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (NYSE: USDU) are up 3.2 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, year-to-date. Those gains have been fueled in large...

During the course of the current bull market, one increasingly prominent theme has been companies' willingness to spend and spend big on share repurchase programs. Reduce shares outstanding, increase earnings per share and everyone winners – namely management and investors, is how buyback...

The WisdomTree Inter Hedged Eq Fund (NYSE: HEDJ) and the Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity ETF, DBX ETF Trust (NYSE: DBEF), are still the top two asset-gathering exchange traded funds on a year-to-date basis, having hauled in more than $28.6 billion combined. Additionally, the WisdomTree...