David Ashworth

The S&P 500 index, tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), rose 8.3% in October.

The JPMorgan Intrepid European Fund’s assets were spread across 79 holdings as of December 2015.

2016 has mostly been about macro trends, thus presenting a different set of challenges for active fund managers who mostly focus on companies rather than economic and sector trends.

The US Federal Reserve met on September 16 and 17 in one of the most anticipated monetary policy meetings in recent memory.

The Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 92.6 in December—compared to 91 in November. For November, the index was revised from an initially reported value of 88.7.

Things look fine for now Previously in this series, we discussed how mutual funds have a notably larger holding of corporate bonds at present than they had before the financial crisis of 2008. We’ve also talked about how regulatory changes could impact the role of banks as market makers. At the same time, the role […]

FDGRX’s core sectors are information technology, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. The first two sectors make up a little over 60% of the portfolio.

Inflation represents a rise in the general price level in a country or region. The higher the inflation, the lower the quantum of a particular good that can be purchased.

For financial year 2016–2017, the RBI forecasts the GVA growth at a 7.6% pace. This assumes that there aren’t any significant headwinds.

In an interview with Bloomberg Markets Middle East, Mark Mobius stated that he is continuing to put money into Brazil.

There are some important things to know when analyzing ESG issues. Unlike traditional analysis, there’s no particular outlined method for conducting ESG analysis.

Early 2016 was not generous to the Wells Fargo Growth Fund – Class A (SGRAX), and the fund was a below-average performer until May. However, things have improved since then.

If you want to invest in Malaysian equities, then the iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (EWM) is the fund for you.

Flows into investment-grade bond funds (LQD) were negative in the week ending June 17. This was the second consecutive week witnessing outflows.

Except for one fund (MIGFX), no other actively managed fund that we have reviewed in this series has been able to outperform the passively managed SPY.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (or PRI) calls itself “the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment.”

As a group, policymakers seem utterly confused regarding their reading of the economic situation, inflation, and the labor market.

The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment notes on its website, “Mutual funds are one of the most dynamic segments within the ESG investing space.”

A country’s net exports measure the value of total exports less the value of its total imports. It’s positive if exports are larger in value than imports.

Socially responsible investing is known by several terms, including sustainable investing, green investing, and ethical investing.

Telecom services and utilities, the traditional dividend stars, have provided a fillip to US equities in 2016.

Bernstein asked a rhetorical question: “Could there be anything that suggests extreme risk aversion more than the increasing proportion of global sovereign bonds that have negative yields?”

The onValues report on behalf of the Enhanced Analytics Initiative made several conclusions regarding the progress of its understanding of environmental, social, and governance criteria.

The Calamos International Growth Fund – Class A (CIGRX) seems to be cautious about its portfolio positioning for now.

Goldman Sachs has gone bullish on commodities. The finance major, which is the biggest commodities dealer (in sales), has advised clients to go overweight.

The two benchmark equity indices—the Nifty 50 and the S&P BSE Sensex—fell each trading day since the demonetization except for November 10 and November 22.

Banks saw a rise in term deposit accounts since the demonetization. As a result, commercial banks sharply reduced their deposit rates.

The demonetization that has been in effect since November 9 is expected to have a negative impact on inflation. Consumer spending activity almost stopped.

The demonetization of the 500 rupee note and the 1,000 rupee note will likely hit the Indian economy hard in the short term.

The 500 rupee note and the 1,000 rupee note were demonetized at midnight on November 8. The move aimed to curb black money in the financial system.

Narayana Kocherlakota, 12th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said central banks have been able to control inflation better when left alone by the government.

In his November Insights newsletter, Richard Bernstein stated, “It is incredible that investors have basically been wallflowers during the second longest bull market of the post-war period.”

After expressing his thoughts on the Baby Boomer generation’s having become risk-averse, Richard Bernstein moved on to the topic of the safety of “safe” investments.

Richard Bernstein believes that investors’ flocking to fixed-income products and shunning equities has increased their risk.

After stating that the market isn’t in a low return environment, Richard Bernstein moved on to discuss the reasons cited by many for conservative asset allocation.

In his November 2016 Insights newsletter, Richard Bernstein talked about the growing opportunity cost of investing in equities (SPHD) (VIG).

The Federal Reserve’s second last meeting of 2016 is now over, leaving only one meeting left in which the central bank can enact a rate hike.

After the release of the FOMC’s November statement, Bill Gross said that monetary policy in the United States is steadily moving toward normalization, though its pace is slow.

The expected occurred on November 2, 2016, when the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) left the federal funds rate unchanged at 0.25%–0.5%.

Some stock indexes have taken into consideration ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria, applying the methods outlined in the previous article to tackle ESG issues.

Though it might seem that considering environmental impacts while making investments is an oddity that arouses the interest of a niche group of investors, this assumption is incorrect.

One reason that renewable energy hasn’t caught on in a big way is the cost associated with energy generation.

Some issues considered under the social criterion when evaluating a company’s products and practices are human rights, human capital management, and work conditions.

A sustainable coffee effort In the previous article, we looked at industry-level and investment-level examples of how things have been on the sustainable investment front and the developments that are helping certain industries. In this article, we’ll look at a company-level example by way of Starbucks (SBUX). Starbucks employs sustainability standards called C.A.F.E. (Coffee and […]

On December 15, 2015, the Obama administration signed a bill for the extension of tax credits to renewable energy.

Established in mid-2004, the Enhanced Analytics Initiative was aimed at integrating extra-financial issues with traditional financial analysis with a long-term view.

Some issues considered under the environmental criterion when evaluating a company’s products and practices are pollution, carbon emissions, and resource depletion.

TRBCX has had quite a poor run in 2016 so far. The fund places in the bottom three in the YTD period among the 12 funds in this review.

FBGRX has had a below-average 2016 so far, placing seventh in our select peer group of 12 funds in terms of point-to-point returns.

The sectoral breakdown of SHRAX is unlike any other mutual fund in this review, with healthcare as its biggest holding, commanding 35% of the portfolio.