<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> What's up with junk bond investors? Plus: Four sorry years of Dodd-Frank, ignore the Fed's warnings at your own risk, mathematical excuses for sluggish wage growth, and it's not too late for a mid-year portfolio checkup.
On today's <i>Breakfast with Benjamin</i> menu, the latest step the Obama administration is taking to push back against Russia, plus just how much support the Clintons have among Dow Jones Index companies, and much more.
Putting market-cap indexes in perspective.
<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Investors' nerves are fraying and that's not a good thing. Plus: Spiking demand for U.S. Treasuries, dodging corporate taxes, the ABCs of liquid alts, risk-adjusted sector performance, and boning up on your Cinco De Mayo history.
Deutsche Bank AG's asset management unit has started the first U.S.-based exchange traded fund that allows investors to buy Chinese stocks trading in both the domestic and foreign markets.
Transparency a minor issue, says RevenueShares' Vince Lowry
Exposure to variable-rate preferred stocks offers dividend income stream that moves with rates.
<i>Friday's menu:</i> Investors waking up to Putin's Russia risks. Plus: Russia's debt downgraded as Kerry issues another warning; U.S. manufacturing comes back (but housing has not); how about this call: gold to hit $5,000 an ounce; the SEC starts to dissect liquid alt funds; and how sanctions are supposed to work.
Gross' firm and Western Asset pulled as subadvisers from Mercer fund with $1.1 billion.
<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Sugar-coating data to downplay retirement-income challenges. Plus: Simplified Fed-speak, ETFs continue to threaten active management, leveraged-loan fund investors hit the bricks, and there are still undervalued stocks worth considering.
Former brokerage exec Joseph Sullivan has embarked on a radical new plan to restore faded fund firm Legg Mason to its former glory. So far, it's working.
New offering from hedge fund manager AQR seeks to exploit lag between news and market reaction
Mohamed El-Erian's departure from the world's biggest bond manager sparked media reports of tension with Bond King Bill Gross but in a new interview, the former co-CIO called Mr. Gross “a great investor.”
In one corner of the U.S. equity market, investor enthusiasm is exceeding the frenzy of the Internet bubble.
But there's plenty of resistance from plan sponsors
ETF assets have more than doubled every four years since 2000. Financial markets willing, global ETF assets could reach a best-case $3.1 trillion by yearend, up from 2013's $2.2 trillion. Those numbers have people like Deutsche Bank's Sebastian Mercado making interesting correlations.
'Plowhorse economy' ambled along despite some negative news; how much upside room is left?
Wall Street leaders including Lloyd Blankfein and James Gorman, who have courted business in Vladimir Putin's Russia, are facing a dilemma as tensions over Ukraine escalate.
Coffee is up 80% this year. Lean hogs are up 28%. Corn is up 13%. Gold is up 12%. Most of these same commodities were down last year, and any of them could fall at the drop of a hat. How can an investor take advantage of these markets...and sleep at night?
