Last Week In Review: ETF News And Blog Posts To 3/24/2013

Ulli Market Review Contact

In case you missed it, here’s a summary of the ETF topics and market reviews I posted to my blog during the week ending on 3/24/2013.

The events in Cyprus slowed the march of the major indexes towards infinity for just a bit with the S&P 500, after much meandering, only giving back some 4 points for the week.

Nevertheless, the major trend, as identified by our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) remains clearly bullish in equities and, despite widely varying market opinions, we will continue to hold our positions until either the long-term trend lines get broken or our trailing sell stops initiate the signal to exit and step aside.

Most bond ETFs have been slipping and sliding with some breaking their respective trend lines to the downside, which means a reversal has occurred causing us to exit those holdings.

Over past week, we covered the following:

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One Man’s Opinion: Will The Fed Continue To Buy $85 Billion A Month In Assets Through 2013?

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

92835431The US Federal Reserve will continue with its $85 billion-a-month assets purchase-program at least till the third quarter of 2013, feels Neil Datta, the Head of US Economics at Renaissance Macro Research.

Given the Fed’s propensity to air on the side of caution, the likelihood is that they keep buying into early 2014, he noted. The Fed made it clear at the end of its two-day FOMC meeting that they are going to taper the pace of assets purchase should the economic conditions improve even before unemployment rate hits 6 ½ percent; so it’s a little clarity in terms of their thresholds, Neil added.

Asked when the threshold will be reached where markets will make the first move, before the Fed makes any formal announcement for policy change, Neil said six consecutive months of 200,000 job additions from now will probably force the Fed to slow down its assets purchase program. That’s the benchmark Chicago Fed President Charlie Evans has set the target for, he noted. It was surprising to see the Fed saying every economic indicator is skewed to the downside.

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New ETFs On The Block: Barclays ETN+Select MLP ETN (ATMP)

Ulli Master Limited Partnerhips Contact

137430914Barclays iPath has announced the launch of the Barclays ETN+ Select MLP ETN (ATMP) on March 12, adding on to the growing family of master limited partnership fund products.

The new exchange traded note (ETN) tracks the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of Atlantic Trust Select MLP Index, which follows the midstream US and Canadian Master Limited Partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations that trade on major US exchanges in the GICS Energy Sector and the GICS Gas Utilities Industry, and meet certain criteria.

MLPs acquire, build and operate transportation-linked infrastructure assets. Though you might tend to link MLPs with the energy sector, particularly crude oil and natural gas, they are generally involved in transporting commodities. Hence, the performance of MLPs is weakly correlated commodity prices, but depends more on how much of the commodity is pushed through.

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03-22-2013

Ulli Newsletter Archives Contact

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter For Friday, March 22, 2013

ETF/No Load Fund Tracker StatSheet

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

https://theetfbully.com/2013/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03212013/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 22, 2013

INDEX ETFs ADVANCE ON EARNINGS AND CYPRUS DEAL HOPES; EUROPE SLIPS ON UNCERTAINTY

Equities rose Friday, trimming the second weekly drop of the year for the S&P 500 Index as corporate earnings beat street estimates and on optimism that Cyprus will reach a deal before Monday to rescue the nation’s troubled banks.

Nike Inc rallied 11 percent after the world’s largest sporting-goods manufacturer reported improved gross margin for the first time in nine quarters.

Micron Technology Inc surged 10.7 percent after the chipmaker reported sales that beat estimates even though its quarterly loss widened.

Cypriot officials began debating legislation that’ll help unlock bailout funds needed to prevent a banking collapse. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said talks with the so-called troika of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund were in the final stages.

Talks between Cypriot finance minister and the Russian government broke down early Friday; with Moscow declining to commit fresh funding that could help the island nation avoid a default. Nearly one-third of Cyprus’ outsized banking sector is from Russian oligarchs.

The ECB has threatened to cut emergency liquidity measures for Cypriot banks after Monday unless it comes to an agreement with the troika of the EU, the ECB and the IMF.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) surged 91 points to 14,512, with 23 of its 30 components gaining for the day. The blue-chip index however, finished lower on the week, slipping less than 0.01 percent.

The S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 11 points to 1,557 with consumer discretionary, consumer staples energy and telecommunications leading the gains among its 10 business groups. The benchmark index was down 0.2 percent for the week.

Treasuries changed little on Friday as investors grew confident about Cyprus’ ability to raise its part of the funds to secure the EUR 10 billion bailout, diminishing the allure of safe-haven assets.

Across the Atlantic, most European stock markets closed in the red as the Cypriot lawmakers struggled to meet the ECB’s Monday deadline for putting together a bailout plan.

One of the latest plans suggested by Cyprus was rejected by Germany. The island nation had proposed to bundle state assets and pension funds to form an investment fund that could be used as collateral for fresh bonds.

Additionally, Greece and Cyprus agreed to demerge Greek units of indebted Cypriot banks, protecting them from the potential levy on bank deposits.

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) showed a mixed picture as the Domestic TTI held steady while the International TTI dropped. For the week, we closed as follows:

Domestic TTI: +3.50% (last week +3.51%)

International TTI: +8.40% (last week +10.50%)

Again, we will hold all equity ETF positions until our exit strategy signals otherwise.

Have a great week.

Ulli…

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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 John:

Q: Ulli: I’m a long term follower of your work, which I really appreciate. I spend every Saturday reviewing your Stat Sheets. I noticed that you rank the various MFs/ETFs by M- Index on the Stat Sheets, while you rank them by % MA on the Cut Line Report… Why is that?

A: John: The reason is that you have a different view of the rankings. Some readers prefer looking at the Cutline report wanting to track those funds/ETFs that barely have or are about to cross their respective long-term trend lines to the upside, in order to get aboard early. Others prefer using the M-Index to make that decision. So, a different sorting order will better accommodate the various investing styles.

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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 Friday, March 22, 2013

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/2013/03/weekly-statsheet-for-the-etfno-load-fund-tracker-newsletter-updated-through-03212013/

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Market Commentary

Friday, March 22, 2013

INDEX ETFs ADVANCE ON EARNINGS AND CYPRUS DEAL HOPES; EUROPE SLIPS ON UNCERTAINTY

Equities rose Friday, trimming the second weekly drop of the year for the S&P 500 Index as corporate earnings beat street estimates and on optimism that Cyprus will reach a deal before Monday to rescue the nation’s troubled banks.

Nike Inc rallied 11 percent after the world’s largest sporting-goods manufacturer reported improved gross margin for the first time in nine quarters.

Micron Technology Inc surged 10.7 percent after the chipmaker reported sales that beat estimates even though its quarterly loss widened.

Cypriot officials began debating legislation that’ll help unlock bailout funds needed to prevent a banking collapse. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said talks with the so-called troika of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund were in the final stages.

Talks between Cypriot finance minister and the Russian government broke down early Friday; with Moscow declining to commit fresh funding that could help the island nation avoid a default. Nearly one-third of Cyprus’ outsized banking sector is from Russian oligarchs.

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Weekly StatSheet For The ETF/No Load Fund Tracker Newsletter – Updated Through 03/21/2013

Ulli ETF StatSheet Contact

ETF/Mutual Fund Data updated through Thursday, March 21, 2013

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

TTI

The domestic 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 Trend Tracking Index (TTI—green line in above chart) has bounced off its long term trend line (red) by +3.29% as part of the post election rebound.

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 into my blog for the latest updates.

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