John D. Rockefeller once had this to say about happiness. “Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends come in.” Old man Rockefeller had it right. At a time when investors crave regular income, dividend ETFs are in demand, and when they “come in”, they’re making a lot … Read more
By Brian O’Connell (June 2011) With the economy seemingly on a slower pace, if not stalled out completely, anxious Americans – and anxious investors – are turning back to basics. That means more buying more consumer staples, more bonds, and more consumer industrials. That’s right – industrials. Stocks like John Deere (Stock Quote: DE), IBM … Read more
By Brian O’Connell Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Financial service exchange traded funds (ETFs) haven’t had a banner year so far. How bad is it? Put it this way – if financial ETFs were a major league baseball team, they’d be the Mets. According to the Russell 2000 Index, financial … Read more
By Brian O’Connell Exchange traded funds (ETF’s) are big business – no doubt about that. According to a recent study by Black Rock International, at the end of February 2011, the global ETF industry had 2,557 ETFs with 5,802 listings and assets of $1.3 trillion (in U.S. dollars) from 140 providers on 48 exchanges around … Read more
By Brian O’Connell What to make of the current inflationary economic climate? To hear a government economist tell it, it’s basically “nothing to worry folks. Nothing to see here.” That’s pretty much what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a press conference on April 27. Bernanke spoke of “keeping inflation low”, a theme that … Read more