Monthly Archives: September 2013
The Shutdown and The Debt Ceiling
As of the market close on Monday, Congress is still pushing bills back and forth from one house to the other and a government shutdown looks like the odds-on bet. The S&P 500 rebounded part way from a sharp drop at the open but has done little since mid-morning. If the Credit Default Swap market…
- Categories Blitzer's Insights, Strategy, Uncategorized
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- Blitzer's Insights, Strategy, Uncategorized
Commodities Crystal Ball: What do the FUTURES hold?
What strategies will be the most profitable over the next 12 months? Which spread will have the greatest opportunity? These are just a few questions we asked the audience at our S&P Dow Jones Indices 7th Annual Commodities Seminar, and we thought you may be interested in their answers. As I mentioned in a recent CNBC interview,…
Active vs Passive Investing – Looking at 2013 Mid-Year Results
The past 12 months ending June 30 saw an impressive rally in the domestic equity markets with S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 posting double digit gains. During that period, the majority of active managers in all the categories except small cap growth underperformed their benchmarks. The SPIVA 2013 mid-year report shows…
Who’s Calculating Your Index?
Most investors assume that ETFs are passive investment tools tracking independently calculated indices, that premise has arguably been one of the key factors driving the popularity of ETFs. In the past investors and advisors could be confident about their understanding of an ETF by reviewing the rules governing the underlying index. To a large extent…
- Categories Commodities, Equities, Fixed Income, India, S&P 500 & DJIA, Strategy
- Tags Custom, ETFs
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- Commodities, Equities, Fixed Income, India, S&P 500 & DJIA, Strategy
Something you should know about dim sum bond market
I am sure you have probably heard of, or even tried the Cantonese delicacies dim sum. While many people have a good knowledge of Barbecue Pork Bun or Siu Mai Dumplings, not many can tell exactly what is in the dim sum bond market. Dim sum bonds are the debts that issued in the offshore…
- Categories Fixed Income
- Tags bond yields, bonds, China, china offshore, CNH, dim sum, fixed income, High Yied, RMB, Treasury
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- Fixed Income
Your Expectations Are Being Managed… by the Fed
Economists agree that what people expect the future to bring helps determine the economy’s future. Expect prices to rise? Buy in advance. Expect everyone to invest in that hot stock? Go online and buy the stock now. Expect the Fed to keep interest rates so low money is almost free? Take some risks, buy that…
- Categories Blitzer's Insights, Fixed Income, Uncategorized
- Tags Expectations
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- Blitzer's Insights, Fixed Income, Uncategorized
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- Expectations
Fixed Income Laddering
The Federal Reserve’s decision to continue its monthly stimulus purchases on Sept. 18, 2013, had a euphoric effect on the markets, as the S&P 500 immediately rose from 1702 to 1715, eventually closing the day at 1726. Treasuries reacted to the news in the same way, as yields on the 10-year Treasury went from 2.86%…
- Categories Fixed Income
- Tags bond, fixed income, kevin horan, ladder, municipal, munis, US treasury
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- Fixed Income
Municipal Bonds Bounce Off Bottom
The US Municipal bond market has bounced off its recent bottom even as two anchors continue to weigh it down: Puerto Rico and tobacco settlement bonds. Investment grade tax-exempt bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index have seen a 2.32% positive total return since it’s year to date low on September 5th…
- Categories Fixed Income
- Tags bond, bond yields, bonds, fixed income, J. R. Rieger, municipal, munis, Puerto Rico, rieger, tobacco
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- Fixed Income
JOIN US! LIVE-WEBCAST – S&P Dow Jones 7th Annual Commodities Seminar
Please click here to register for our live-streaming of S&P Dow Jones Indices half-day complimentary seminar which has become Europe’s annual meeting point for commodity aficionados in less than a decade. It is the perfect opportunity for all who can’t attend in-person to join us and other leading industry professionals for an afternoon of education and…
If it ain’t broke, don’t VIX it
Within the last week, we’ve read about threats of another war in the Middle East, collapsing currencies across emerging markets, imminent rumblings of yet another Greek bailout. As of this writing, there is one day left until the Fed’s much anticipated pronouncement on the “end” of QE. Talk abounds of September being the worst month…