New ETFs On The Block: Powershares International Buyback Achievers Portfolio (IPKW)

Ulli International ETFs Contact

98153895Invesco PowerShares, the IL-based global provider of mutual and exchange-traded funds with total assets exceeding $770 billion, has launched an international version of its wildly successful Buyback Achievers Portfolio (PKW).

PKW has nearly $3 billion in assets, making it one of the most successful broader market ETFs over the past few years and has comfortably outperformed the S&P 500 index during the current market advances.

The newly launched PoweShares International BuyBack Achievers Portfolio (IPKW) adds to the so-called line up of PowerShares’ 40 smart-beta funds. Smart-beta funds typically choose a broad-based index and screen it for qualitative and quantitative factors to boost returns.

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03-07-2014

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For March 7, 2014

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03062014/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 7, 2014

WEEKLY RECAP; PAYROLL REPORT KEEPS MARKETS STABLE

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

The S&P 500 continued its climb today to close at another all-time high, still feeding off the favorable jobs reports that were released this week. The official monthly payroll report that was published today helped markets rally in early trading. Employers added 175,000 jobs in February, well in excess of the past two months and more than many observers had anticipated. The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7%, but the increase was due mostly to a healthy rise in the labor force.

Let’s recap what happened this week. Stocks overcame a sharp pullback in response to a growing crisis in Ukraine and ended the week higher. After a sell-off on Monday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index moved back into record territory on Tuesday and held onto its gain through much of the rest of the week.

The movement of Russian troops into Ukraine’s Crimea over the weekend rattled the world markets on Monday. Many investors moved to safer assets, and the stock market suffered as a result. Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas to Europe, and the prospect of sanctions or other disruptions sent the price of both commodities up sharply. Stock prices rallied on Tuesday, however, as Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to indicate that Russia did not intend to annex Crimea and had no immediate plans for military action.

Emerging markets debt posted good returns when tensions between Russia and Ukraine began to subside. Investors closely watched China’s bond market, where a solar-equipment company missed an interest payment on Friday. This was the first time that the Chinese government has allowed an onshore, local-currency bond to default, and will likely cause investors to more accurately price credit risk in Chinese corporate bonds.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar was weaker against the major currencies for the week.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight edged higher for the week with 3 of them making new highs today while 9 of them are now showing gains YTD.

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.

In other words, none of them ever triggered their 7.5% sell stop level during this time period, which included a variety of severe market pullbacks but no move into outright bear market territory.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

All of them are in “buy” mode meaning their prices are above their respective long term trend lines by the percentage indicated (%M/A).

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

YTD

To be clear, 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.

3. Domestic Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) improved from last week’s close and ended as follows:

Domestic TTI: +4.35% (last Friday +4.34%)

International TTI: +6.04% (last Friday +6.39%)

Have a great week.

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

A note from reader James:

Q: Ulli: What has happened to your 7 model portfolios? Have you abandoned this approach? Did I miss something?

A: James: Yes, you must have missed the announcement. This is what I posted in November about the discontinuation of the model portfolios as they have been replaced by the daily update of the 10 ETFs in the Spotlight:

https://theetfbully.com/2013/11/7-etf-model-portfolios-you-can-use-updated-through-11262013/?preview=true

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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/

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For March 7, 2014

Ulli ETF Tracker Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

————————————————————-

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

https://theetfbully.com/2014/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03062014/

————————————————————

Market Commentary

Friday, March 7, 2014

WEEKLY RECAP; PAYROLL REPORT KEEPS MARKETS STABLE

Fri pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

The S&P 500 continued its climb today to close at another all-time high, still feeding off the favorable jobs reports that were released this week. The official monthly payroll report that was published today helped markets rally in early trading. Employers added 175,000 jobs in February, well in excess of the past two months and more than many observers had anticipated. The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7%, but the increase was due mostly to a healthy rise in the labor force.

Let’s recap what happened this week. Stocks overcame a sharp pullback in response to a growing crisis in Ukraine and ended the week higher. After a sell-off on Monday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index moved back into record territory on Tuesday and held onto its gain through much of the rest of the week.

The movement of Russian troops into Ukraine’s Crimea over the weekend rattled the world markets on Monday. Many investors moved to safer assets, and the stock market suffered as a result. Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas to Europe, and the prospect of sanctions or other disruptions sent the price of both commodities up sharply. Stock prices rallied on Tuesday, however, as Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to indicate that Russia did not intend to annex Crimea and had no immediate plans for military action.

Emerging markets debt posted good returns when tensions between Russia and Ukraine began to subside. Investors closely watched China’s bond market, where a solar-equipment company missed an interest payment on Friday. This was the first time that the Chinese government has allowed an onshore, local-currency bond to default, and will likely cause investors to more accurately price credit risk in Chinese corporate bonds.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar was weaker against the major currencies for the week.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight edged higher for the week with 3 of them making new highs today while 9 of them are now showing gains YTD.

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Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 03/06/2014

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, March 6, 2014

Table of Content082312

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 10/25/2011

TTI0306

Our main directional indicator, the Domestic Trend Tracking Index (TTI), broke through its long-term trend line generating a Sell for this area effective 8/9/2011. Over the recent past, we’ve seen the TTI hovering slightly below and above this dividing line between bullish and bearish territory. The clear break to the upside occurred on 10/24/11 and, effective 10/25/11, a new Buy signal for domestic equities went into effect.

As of today, our TTI (green line in above chart) has bounced off its long term trend line (red) by +4.69%.

To avoid a potential whip-saw, a Sell signal to move out of all domestic equity positions will be generated once we have clearly pierced the line to the downside. Be sure to tune in for the latest updates.

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Unemployment Claims Drop; Staples To Close 10% Of All Stores

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

We received some good news regarding unemployment today. A report came in that showed the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in three months. This report was one of the first bits of good news investors have received on the economy after weeks of data that showed the U.S. recovery temporarily slowing because of the severe winter. It has been somewhat hard to tell exactly what data has been directly related to the winter storms. This is not the case though with unemployment claims and the market responded positively today with the S&P 500 closing at a new record (again) and the Dow making notable gains.

Do you buy your ink cartridges in-person or online? Well, it seems that the answer is divided 50/50 amongst Staples customers. Staples (SPLS) made headlines today as it announced that it will close 10% of all of its stores due to the fact that now almost half of its sales are generated online. Staples is the second major brick-and-mortar retailer this week to announce widespread closures. Remember that two days ago I wrote about RadioShack announcing it would close as many as 1,100 locations as part of a restructuring effort.

Outside the U.S., investors remained concerned about Ukraine, where tensions have been escalating over Russia’s deployment of troops to Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula. Moscow-backed Crimean officials said Thursday that the region would hold a referendum to decide whether it should be annexed by Russia. President Barack Obama declared that the referendum would violate international law. I would not be surprised to see continued volatility in the markets as this situation remains unstable.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight vacillated with 6 of them making new highs while 9 of them have now moved to the plus side YTD.

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Stocks Fairly Quiet Today After Big Rally Yesterday

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Wed pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving The Markets

It was a pretty quiet day in the markets today with no index really moving substantially in either direction amidst some uneventful economic news. The Fed, in its Beige Book review of regional conditions, said today the economy in most sectors grew last month despite impediments from the harsh winter weather. However, the Chair of the Federal Reserve did say that the Fed still has much more to do to reach its inflation and unemployment goals.

Biotech stocks on the Nasdaq experienced some nice gains today, with many popping or dropping by more than 20% in a single day. Peregrine (PPHM) was the day’s biggest winner by far, up nearly 50% on the announcement that it would be announcing results for its preclinical immuno-oncology drugs at an upcoming conference next week. Today’s other winner, Arrowhead Research Corp. (ARWR), saw shares shoot up 25% after two Wall Street analysts switched to a “buy” recommendation in addition as they are excited about the company’s hepatitis B drug.

There was not too much exciting happening in international markets today either. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian diplomats today, while Russia held talks with NATO over developments in Ukraine. Key European stocks were a bit lower after strong rallies on Tuesday as the Ukraine-Russian stand-off calmed. The FTSE in London fell 0.71% while Germany’s DAX shed 0.49%. In Asia, the Hang Seng closed down 0.34% while Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.20%. Chinese authorities kept the growth target for the nation unchanged at 7.5%, despite signs of concerns around reaching it.

Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight meandered but 3 of them made new highs while 8 of them moved to the plus side YTD.

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