S&P Dow Jones Indices

In a tumultuous year for equities in 2015, low volatility exchange-traded funds did their job— that job being performing admirably during challenging market environments. For example, the PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (PowerShares Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II (NYSE: SPLV...

As expected, S&P 500 dividend growth slipped last year with a spate of payout cuts in the energy sector proving problematic. Energy is the seventh-largest sector weight in the S&P 500. “Indicated dividend net increases (increases less decreases) rose $3.6 billion during the fourth...

Entering Tuesday, the S&P 500, the benchmark U.S. equity index, sports a modest year-to-date loss of 0.12 percent. That would seem to imply it was a boring year for U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500. However, this year was anything but boring the myriad ETFs that...

For more than 17 years, exchange-traded funds investors and traders alike knew just nine sector SPDRs, but that changed in October with the debuts of Financial Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (The)(NYSE: XLFS) and Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (The) (NYSE: XLRE). The New SPDRs State Street...

Conventional wisdom dictates that as the U.S. dollar rises, commodities do the opposite. Over the past year, conventional wisdom has held true; the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP) has climbed 10.7 percent, while the GREENHAVEN Continuous Commodity Indx Fnd (NYSE: GCC) has plunged...

Seasoned commodities investors know that geopolitical events often have profound impacts on oil prices. History is littered with examples of conflicts in major oil-producing countries prompting supply disruptions, which in turn stoke higher prices for oil futures and exchange traded products such...

The struggles of active managers over the past several years have been well documented. Plenty of folks appear on various financial media outlets year after year proclaiming “this is a stock picker's market.” The thing is, stock-picking is difficult. Worse yet, data suggest there...

It's no secret that accredited investors, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds have more access to commercial real estate investments than the average investor. Investor interest in this asset class has grown to the point that equity REITs and select real estate companies have essentially "...

The S&P Dow Jones Indexes unveiled changes earlier this week to the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 indexes. Among the changes announced Tuesday, Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE AMG) will replace Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) in the S&P 500 after the...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average will change September 24 as United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) replaces Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) in the average. The move by S&P Dow Jones Indices is due to Kraft spinning off its North American grocery business in October. The change will not affect the Dow, as...