Tag Archives: MarketWatch

As Predicted, The Sun Has Set On The Solar ETF’s Rise

May 21, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

After months of warnings from market watchers, the Chinese solar stock, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, started to set on a pretty powerful year so far. MarketsMuse blog update profiles the effects this Chinese stock has had on the Guggenheim ETF, which MarketsMuse has profiled before. This MarketsMuse update is courtesy of MarketWatch’s Victor Reklaitis and his article, “China solar stock implosion a reminder to look under ETF’s hood“

Many market watchers have warned this year about a highflying Chinese solar stock—Hanergy Thin Film Power Group—and its leading role in popular ways to bet on solar stocks like one Guggenheim ETF.

On Wednesday, Hanergy’s 0566, -46.95% aerial routine ended with a crash, as one Wall Street Journal headline put it. And the Hong Kong-listed stock’s dive after a meteoric rise was helping to take down the Guggenheim Solar ETF TAN, -7.79%

So what’s the takeaway?

“Investors should take care to look under the hood of the ETFs in order to understand what exposure they are possibly buying into,” said Markit analyst Relte Schutte in an email to MarketWatch on Tuesday about the solar ETF and Hanergy.

Schutte had noted in a May 6 commentary that about half of the Guggenheim ETF’s year-to-date jump of 40% was due to Hanergy’s surge of 157%. The ETF was about 12% exposed to Hanergy as of Tuesday, before its big plunge, making it the largest stock in that fund. Hanergy also has been the biggest holding in two rival ETFs, the Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF KWT, -6.88% and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF ICLN, -2.57%

To continue reading about the implications the crash the Hanergy Stock has had on the solar ETFs, click here.

ETF News

Investors Reach For Euro ETFs as the US Dollar Recovers

March 13, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

MarketMuse update courtesy of MarketWatch’s 12 March article, “Dollar surge has investors scrambling for a piece of this European ETF”. From the National Swiss Bank’s huge announcement in January to Greece’s continued demise, the European market has seen better days. While the US market continues to recover, the US dollar has almost completely recovered to the being equivalent with the Euro which is making investor grab at Euro ETFs.

Back in 2008, $1.60 bought one euro EURUSD, -1.10% Fast forward to today, and the U.S. dollar is surging toward parity with the hobbled currency. Just a few more ticks to go.

Of course, the huge currency shake-up is bad news for U.S. exporters but it’s great for investors in the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity fund HEDJ, +0.19% And they are throwing gobs of money at it. Read: 4 stock plays that are attracting investor dollars this year.

In the past year alone, $12 billion has flowed into the fund, a more than tenfold increase. The ETF is now the biggest covering Europe with almost $14 billion in assets, according to ETF Database. That’s enough to displace the Vanguard FTSE Europe giant VGK, -0.85% as the region’s top dog.

Olly Ludwig, managing editor for ETF.com, points out that the dollar’s rise has turned a neutral investment into a world beater.

“There’s an elegant mirror-like quality to the chart that isolates the currency factor rather cleanly,” Ludwig said. “Were it not for the currency hedge, HEDJ would be about flat.”

Investors have obviously been taking notice, and currency-hedged ETFs, in general, have seen spikes in asset growth. Ludwig pointed out that, on Monday alone, HEDJ and the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity fund DXJ, -0.39% combined to attract $1 billion. In a single day.

For the entire article from MarketWatch, click here.

ETF News

Virtus Investment Partners Take on The ETF Market

January 27, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

MarketMuse update is courtesy of MarketWatch.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ: VRTS), multi-manager asset management business, announced that they have reached an agreement with ETF Issuer Solutions (ETFis) , a comprehensive platform for listing, operating, and distributing exchange traded funds. Virtus Investment Partners will acquire the majority interest from the deal. The transaction will provide Virtus with manufacturing capabilities for both active and passive ETFs, adding to its broad product line-up.

ETFis, founded in 2012, recently introduced the industry’s first actively managed ETF investing exclusively in master limited partnerships, the InfraCap MLP ETF AMZA, +0.14% 1. It currently manages two other ETFs and has seven additional ETFs in registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of the company’s ETFs are managed by external subadvisers.

“There is growing interest among financial advisors and investors to use exchange-traded funds in their retail and institutional portfolios because of the tax efficiency and liquidity benefits that ETFs offer,” said George R. Aylward, president and chief executive officer of Virtus. “The ETFis business model is similar to the Virtus approach of offering investors access to strategies of boutique managers. This partnership with ETFis will expand our product capabilities and allow us to offer compelling investment strategies in an actively managed ETF format.”

ETFis will become a Virtus affiliate and continue to operate as a multi-manager ETF platform, providing investors access to differentiated investment capabilities from select subadvisers. The company is led by its co-founders, Matthew B. Brown, who manages operations and technology capabilities, and William J. Smalley, head of product strategy and management.

“We developed ETF Issuer Solutions to provide a technology-driven, ETF-specific platform that offers significant cost and operational efficiencies. The partnership with Virtus gives us the resources and support to execute on our long-term vision of building a leading multi-manager ETF platform,” said Smalley. “We are excited to have the opportunity to combine our offerings with Virtus’ extensive distribution capabilities to create a compelling alternative for asset managers that want to make their actively managed strategies available in an exchange-traded fund structure.”

The Newfleet Multi-Sector Unconstrained Bond ETF2 will be the first new offering managed by a Virtus affiliate added to the ETFis platform. The fund will leverage the Newfleet Asset Management team’s broad experience in multi-sector fixed-income investing in a strategy that will have the flexibility to capitalize on opportunities across all sectors of the bond markets, including evolving, specialized, and out-of-favor sectors, as it seeks to deliver relatively high income and an attractive total return. A registration statement for the fund has been filed with the SEC.

The transaction is expected to close in March. Terms were not disclosed. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal advisor to Virtus. Haynes & Boone LLP acted as legal advisor to ETFis.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains statements that are, or may be considered to be, forward-looking statements. All statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs or expectations, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as “expect,” “estimate,” “plan,” “intend,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “continue,” “project,” or similar statements or variations of such terms. Our forward-looking statements are based on a series of expectations, assumptions and projections about our company, are not guarantees of future results or performance, and involve substantial risks and uncertainty as described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any of our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which are available on our website at www.virtus.com under “Investor Relations.” All of our forward-looking statements are as of the date of this release only. The company can give no assurance that such expectations or forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Actual results may differ materially. You are urged to carefully consider all such factors.