Paul Weisbruch

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey and in anticipation of Hurricane Irma, some investors have been paying renewed attention to timber and forestry exchange-traded funds. The dominant names in that group are the Guggenheim MSCI Global Timber ETF (NYSE: CUT) and the iShares Global Timber & Forestry...

Nearly eight months into 2017, investors that pay attention to sector-level trends know that financial services stocks are lagging. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF) is up about 6 percent year-to-date, well off the 9.5 percent returned by the S&P 500. Things are worse for regional...

As is the case with smaller stocks, mid-caps are lagging their large-cap counterparts this year. The S&P MidCap 400 Index, one of the most widely followed gauges of mid-cap equities, is higher by just over 4 percent year to date while the S&P 500 is up more than 11 percent. However, data...

Though it is still in the doldrums relative to other currency exchange-traded funds, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE: UUP) has perked up in recent sessions. The dollar's awakening, albeit modest, is pressuring commodities and the related ETFs, including silver funds. The...

Emerging markets stocks hit a rough spot last week as markets roiled by an intensifying geopolitical rift between the U.S. and North Korea. However, the saber rattling did not prompt large-scale departures from some emerging markets exchange-traded funds, although the MSCI Emerging Markets Index...

The iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF (NYSE: THD), the lone U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund dedicated to Thai stocks, is up about 12 percent year to date. While that performance lags the returns of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, that sentiment should diminish the potential offered by THD. THD is...

U.S. small caps have been laggards for essentially all of this year, but the current state of affairs for smaller U.S. stocks is getting downright troubling. While large-cap indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, regularly hit record highs, exchange-traded funds such as the iShares...

Since coming to market just over three years ago, the First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF (NASDAQ: FV) has proven popular with advisors and investors that follow Dorsey Wright's relative strength-based strategies. That sentiment is confirmed by FV's more than $2.4 billion in assets under...

Many of the largest exchange-traded funds focus on U.S. large-cap stocks. For example, the two largest ETFs, and three of the five biggest, track the S&P 500. While the S&P 500 is the benchmark U.S. equity gauge, it holds just over 500 stocks and because of its cap-weighted methodology,...

Hopes of a legitimate rebound in oil prices and the related exchange-traded funds were dealt a blow last week when the United States Oil Fund (NYSE: USO), which tracks West Texas Intermediate futures, slid 2.6 percent. Slumping crude prices often pressure some equity-based ETFs, including the...

The S&P 500 is up 10 percent this year and with the benefit of 1.4 percent gain over the past week, the benchmark U.S. equity index continues pushing to record highs. Sounds like a recipe for trouble for traders that have been long inverse or, worse yet, inverse leveraged exchange traded funds...

Just when it looked like the downtrodden United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO) was ready for a legitimate relief rally, the widely followed oil exchange-traded product was taken to task last week, falling 1.2 percent. As one of this year's worst-performing commodities, oil already has...

The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF), widely viewed as one of this year's most disappointing sector exchange-traded funds, has recently shown signs of momentum. Over the past week, XLF, the largest ETF dedicated to the financial services sector, is higher by 4.2 percent. That could...

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates earlier this week, marking the second time this year that the U.S. central bank has boosted borrowing costs. That move by the Fed has helped the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE: UUP), widely viewed as a dud this year among developed market...

The U.S. dollar is one of this year's most disappointing developed market currencies, but that is not helping the commodities complex. Most commodities, an asset class denominated in dollars, are sagging, but some precious metals have been notable exceptions. Among exchange-traded products, the...