The Finance Sector is ranked as #3 among the 15 we cover for year-ahead returns by the ValuEngine forecast model. Finance sector stocks and ETFs along with the previously profiled utilities sector are generally perceived as stodgy stocks that are most commonly bought by older investors for dividend yield. However, that has not been true … Read more
Weekly Market Summary – Week Ending Aug 22, 2025 U.S. equities continued to show signs of rotation last week as small caps and value funds outperformed large-cap growth and technology ETFs. Market caution remains high with September approaching, historically the weakest month for equities. In the below table we use major ETF’s as a proxy … Read more
Our quick answer from a quantitative perspective is no. Of the 15 Sectors covered in reports by ValuEngine, the Technology sector ranks fourth in expected 12-month price return according to our forecast model. Our sector ratings are equally weighted indicating that this broad sector has strongly rated stocks throughout the market cap spectrum and beyond … Read more
The twist is that iShares ETFs are used throughout this analysis. This way we can analyze the first half of the year while also reviewing iShares unique history along with their strengths and weaknesses for investors in the context of today’s ETF marketplace. This article also relies heavily on the nomenclature system of ETFdb.com, a … Read more
The S&P 500 Index had been up nearly 1 percent after the first four days of trading this week. Israel’s attacks on strategic targets in Iran followed by Iran’s counterattack changed the narrative as the selloff Friday wiped out those gains sufficiently to throw that benchmark into negative territory for the week. It can be … Read more
The markets have soared in the past two weeks with word of tariff relief. It was accompanied by reduced concern about a potential recession and greater confidence in US corporate earnings engines. Adding to this optimism is that corporate administrative costs in dealing with regulatory red tape and fears of SEC fines have been relegated … Read more
The first 100 days of Trump 2.0 have been anything but “business as usual.” During the past several weeks with tariff wars and Administration policy changes taking center stage, huge volatility swings in both directions have greatly disturbed many investors. Seemingly, there has seldom been a better time to be a volatility trader. All 5,200+ … Read more
Our last blog discussed safe harbors amidst the current storm of market volatility. The idea presented was to investigate the strong buy stocks with the lowest betas. This week we home in on a sector that is typically low volatility and low growth. Currently we find fairly competitive earnings growth in this sector. We look … Read more
Market volatility last week was the highest it has been in 2025. While it sent a portion of investors heading for the exits, many more looked to shift assets from large-cap technology stocks and cap-weighted ETFs into less volatile investments. For example, low beta stocks and low beta ETFs have seen increased interest as investors … Read more
I will often feature stocks rated buy or strong buy in highly rated sectors. This one is a departure. The healthcare sector is most commonly represented by the Select Sector SPDR Healthcare ETF, XLV. It faced a challenging year in 2024, underperforming the S&P 500 Index by a staggering 22.4%. This massive performance shortfall resulted … Read more