One Man’s Opinion: Do Fixed-Income Valuations Look Stretched?

Ulli Market Review Contact

92835431The US Federal Reserve is likely to remain patient and investors shouldn’t worry much as the US central bank will be very methodical and transparent about what they do, said Brain Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds.

The latest FOMC minutes showed the Fed’s tone was a little more dovish than the markets were anticipating. The equity markets didn’t react much to the Fed’s minutes because if investors put things in perspective and looked at the grand scheme of things, over the longer-term it didn’t really matter whether the central bank raised rates in June, September or at a subsequent interval.

The equity markets seem to be somewhat inoculated against what the Fed was doing. However, the scenario is different in the fixed-income markets, which are likely to show more volatility, he noted.

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New ETFs On The Block: ETFS Zacks Earnings Large-Cap US Index Fund (ZLRG)

Ulli Equity ETFs, Small Cap ETFs Contact

146026450ETF Securities, the London-based exchange-traded fund issuer known for its commodity-based products in the US, launched its first equity-based products in collaboration with US investment-research giant Zacks recently.

The two funds – the ETFS Zacks Earnings Large-Cap US Index Fund (ZLRG) and the ETFS Zacks Earnings Small-Cap US Index Fund (ZSML), focus solely on US large-capitalization and small-cap stocks only.

The new launches from ETFS come after a gap of nearly four years and are a clear departure from earlier products that took exposure only in physical and futures contracts of different commodities.

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02-20-2015

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For February 20, 2015

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/02/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-02192015/

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Market Commentary

Friday, February 20, 2015

STOCKS ONCE AGAIN TIP THEIR HAT TO RECORD HIGHS

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks jumped Friday as the Dow and S&P 500 shot up to record closing highs on word that Greece and its eurozone creditors have officially reached an extension agreement on a debt deal. The Dow closed up more than 150 points, marking its first record close for 2015.

At a televised press conference in Brussels, it was announced that creditors will extend Greece’s bailout for four months, which is less than the six months Athens’ new government initially sought. But the deal, at least for now, means Greece will have cash to pay its bills and will remain in the Eurozone at this time.

In other geopolitical news, the Financial Times reported that NATO forces need to prepare for a major assault by Russia on an eastern European member state. Only time shall tell how that will impact markets in the near future.

In the week to come, numerous economic reports are expected. Reports include Q4 GDP on Friday. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will provide two days of testimony to Congress starting Tuesday, which will likely be closely watched for clues of future monetary policy decisions. In addition, both the consumer confidence and University of Michigan sentiment indicators will provide glimpses into the consumer’s current spending mindset. Other noteworthy reports expected include the S&P Case Shiller index of home prices, the consumer price index, and durable goods orders from January.

All our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight closed up with 5 of them making new highs; all 10 of them are now showing gains YTD as you can see in table 2.

2. ETFs in the Spotlight

In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.

It features 10 broadly diversified ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Monday. Furthermore, they are screened for the lowest MaxDD% number meaning they have been showing better resistance to temporary sell offs than all others over the past year.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

The above table simply demonstrates the magnitude with which some of the ETFs are fluctuating in regards to their positions above or below their respective individual trend lines (%M/A). A break below, represented by a negative number, shows weakness, while a break above, represented by a positive percentage, shows strength.

For hundreds of ETF/Mutual fund choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.

Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:

YTD

Again, the first table above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines (%M/A), while the second one tracks their trailing sell stops in the “Off High” column. The “Action” column will signal a “Sell” once the -7.5% point has been taken out in the “Off High” column.

3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) followed the positive trend and closed up; especially the International TTI picked up some speed since last week’s Buy signal.

Here’s how this week ended:

Domestic TTI: +3.80% (last Friday +3.82%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +3.79% (last Friday +2.46%)—Buy signal effective 2/13/2015

Have a nice weekend.

Ulli…

Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as advisory clients of mine, own some of these listed ETFs. Furthermore, they do not represent a specific investment recommendation for you, they merely show which ETFs from the universe I track are falling within the guidelines specified.

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READER Q & A FOR THE WEEK

All Reader Q & A’s are listed at our web site!
Check it out at:

http://www.successful-investment.com/q&a.php

Reader Freden:

Q: Ulli: With the international TTI going (and staying) positive over the last couple of days, would it be a good time to invest or ease into diversified international ETFs, such as VEU? Has enough upside momentum been demonstrated? Or, is this a potential head fake like last November?

A: Freden: As I said yesterday (2/12/15) in my commentary, barring any major sell-off this Friday morning (2/13/15), which did not occur, a new Buy signal for the international arena has been generated.

As with any other Buy signal, use my recommended incremental buying process depending on your risk tolerance and, of course, never forget to implement my sell stop discipline. With all that is going in Europe, things could reverse in a hurry. There is no one alive that could tell you whether this is another head-fake.

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR INVESTMENTS PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED?

Do you have the time to follow our investment plans yourself? If you are a busy professional who would like to have his portfolio managed using our methodology, please contact me directly or get more details at:

https://theetfbully.com/personal-investment-management/

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Back issues of the ETF/No Load Fund Tracker are available on the web at:

https://theetfbully.com/newsletter-archives/

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For February 20, 2015

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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THE LINK TO OUR CURRENT ETF/MUTUAL FUND STATSHEET IS:

https://theetfbully.com/2015/02/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-02192015/

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Market Commentary

Friday, February 20, 2015

STOCKS ONCE AGAIN TIP THEIR HAT TO RECORD HIGHS

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks jumped Friday as the Dow and S&P 500 shot up to record closing highs on word that Greece and its eurozone creditors have officially reached an extension agreement on a debt deal. The Dow closed up more than 150 points, marking its first record close for 2015.

At a televised press conference in Brussels, it was announced that creditors will extend Greece’s bailout for four months, which is less than the six months Athens’ new government initially sought. But the deal, at least for now, means Greece will have cash to pay its bills and will remain in the Eurozone at this time.

In other geopolitical news, the Financial Times reported that NATO forces need to prepare for a major assault by Russia on an eastern European member state. Only time shall tell how that will impact markets in the near future.

In the week to come, numerous economic reports are expected. Reports include Q4 GDP on Friday. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will provide two days of testimony to Congress starting Tuesday, which will likely be closely watched for clues of future monetary policy decisions. In addition, both the consumer confidence and University of Michigan sentiment indicators will provide glimpses into the consumer’s current spending mindset. Other noteworthy reports expected include the S&P Case Shiller index of home prices, the consumer price index, and durable goods orders from January.

All our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight closed up with 5 of them making new highs; all 10 of them are now showing gains YTD as you can see in table 2.

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Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 02/19/2015

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, February 19, 2015

TOC021915

If you are not familiar with some of the terminology used, please see the Glossary of Terms.

 

1. DOMESTIC EQUITY MUTUAL FUNDS/ETFs: BUY — since 10/22/2014

TTI

Our main directional indicator, the Domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI), broke through its long-term trend line generating a “Sell” for this arena effective 10/14/2014, which was followed by a violent break back above the line on 10/22/14 generating a new “Buy.” It was a classic whipsaw signal, and you can read more on my blog as to the events as they were unfolding.

As of today, our TTI (green line in above chart) is positioned above its long term trend line (red) by +3.70% keeping us in the market with our established positions.

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Stocks Close Mixed; Apple Interested In Tesla?

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

U.S. stocks closed with mixed results on the day amid corporate earnings and economic data. In earnings news, EOG Resources (EOG) declined after reporting earnings that missed analyst’s estimates, while Priceline (PCLN) closed up over 8% after posting better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

As part of the good economic news today, apparently Americans are getting more jobs. We received a big drop in unemployment numbers. The number of unemployment claims last week (seasonally adjusted) was 283,000, which was a drop of 21,000 from the previous week’s estimate.

In tech/auto news, it seems that Apple (AAPL) may be legitimately interested in the auto market. There has been much speculation of recent that Tesla has poached more than a few employees from Apple for various engineering designs. The thing to remember is that, traditionally, when Apple has made an acquisition it is typically around the ceiling of $500 million, and the rumored asking price for a Tesla acquisition is $75 billion. Quite a difference in protocol!

2 our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight managed to squeeze out some gains and managed to make new yearly highs in the process, as section 2 below shows.

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