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Change Is In The Air
by Brian Wesbury, Robert Stein of First Trust Advisors, 11/10/14
While many flay away, trying to figure out the meaning of last weeks GOP wave election, it seems simple. The government has tried for more than five years to turn a Plow Horse economy into a Race Horse, and failed. Yes, the economy is growing and creating jobs, but living standards are growing slowly, or not at all, for many.

Mid-Quarter Update: Good Start to 2014 for Many Categories of CEF Marketplace; Still Compelling Valu
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 2/25/14
Many categories of closed-end funds (CEFs) are off to a good start to the year. Investors took advantage of the big discounts to net asset value (NAV) and attractive yields available in the secondary market which helped push the average CEF up 2.57% the first 6 weeks of the year as measured by the First Trust Closed-End Fund Composite Total Return Price Index (UPCEFT) as of 2/14/14.

Mid-Quarter Update: Good Start to 2014 for Many Categories of CEF Marketplace
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 2/21/14
Many categories of closed-end funds (CEFs) are off to a good start to the year. Investors took advantage of the big discounts to net asset value (NAV) and attractive yields available in the secondary market which helped push the average CEF up 2.57% the first 6 weeks of the year as measured by the First Trust Closed-End Fund Composite Total Return Price Index (UPCEFT) as of 2/14/14.

Preparing for the Unexpected with Commodity Futures ETFs
by Ryan Issakainen of First Trust Advisors, 2/20/14
Three straight years of negative returns for broad commodity benchmark indices, such as the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Total Return Index, have led some investment advisors (and their clients) to begin questioning the rationale for including commodity futures ETFs1 in their asset allocation models. Relatively tame inflation expectations seem to support these doubts, as commodities are often thought of as a hedge against inflation.

2013 - A Strong Year for ETFs
by Ryan Issakainen of First Trust Advisors, 1/28/14
US-listed ETF1 net inflows totaled $185.5 billion in 2013, setting a new record. While the largest percentage of net inflows remained concentrated among a relatively small group of the 1521 US-listed ETFs, investors broadened their horizons more in 2013 than in previous years, as 312 ETFs had net inflows exceeding $100 million.

Closed End Fund Review - Fourth Quarter 2013
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 1/27/14
2013 was a mixed year for the closed-end fund (CEF) structure. While the Morningstar universe of 176 equity CEFs were up on average 12.13% on a share price total return basis and clearly benefited from the global rise in equity prices, the Morningstar universe of 387 fixed-income CEFs was lower by an average of 8.56% on a share price total return basis.

"New Bubble" Talk, Premature
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 1/13/14
That was fast. A little over two years ago, we declared that housing had not only bottomed, but was about to start its first real growth spurt since the bubble (Housing At An Inflection Point 11/2/2011). While some agreed, others expressed polite disagreement or, in some cases, incredulity.

Dow 19,500, S&P 500 2,150
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 1/7/14
Last year was the best for equities since 1997. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26.5%, the S&P 500 was up 29.6% and the Nasdaq was up 38.3%. Despite these outsized gains, and in spite of all the talk of a bubble, we still think stocks are cheap.

Plow Horse, Trotting
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 12/30/13
What a year 2013 has been. Remember how it started, with the media hyperventilating over the "fiscal cliff" deal and spending sequester? The vast majority of economists, pundits and politicians believe in Keynesian economics. So, its not surprising that higher tax rates and spending cuts sent them into an intellectual and theoretical funk.

A Dovish-Bullish Taper
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 12/19/13
They finally did it. At Chairman Bernankes next to last meeting, the Federal Reserve announced a modest tapering of quantitative easing, reducing its monthly purchases of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities by $5 billion each ($10 billion total) to $75 billion starting in January. As a result, the size of the Feds balance sheet will continue to rise, but slightly more slowly than before.

Pessimists Get Desperate
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 12/9/13
Payrolls keep growing. Economic data stays positive. The stock market makes new highs. Its been consistent for nearly five years. And so has the pessimism. In fact, the pouting pundits of pessimism get more determined each month, trying to prove that things are really bad out there.

Consumers Doing Fine
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 12/2/13
According to the National Retail Federation, Thursday to Sunday holiday sales dropped 3% versus last year. No doubt, this will wake up some dozing bears. And, we are sure that when we say its not as bad as you think, many will argue we are perma-bulls, naive, or downright stubborn. You can think what you want, but we dont believe sales are falling.

QE: Not That Big of a Deal
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 11/26/13
The most frequent question we get lately is "what happens to long-term interest rates when quantitative easing ends?" Many analysts argue that the Federal Reserve is buying and holding a huge share of Treasury debt and once QE ends other buyers will suddenly have to absorb more. This will cause interest rates to soar, bust the housing market, undermine stocks, and possibly cause a recession.

Taper Talk
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 11/12/13
Taperingplease bring it on. We wanted it yesterday, or last month, or even years ago. We never thought QE helped the economy and certainly dont think keeping it around is a good idea. Its created uncertainty at an unprecedented level.

More #PlowHorse in Q3
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 11/4/13
Despite the shutdown, the sequester, talk of tapering, and meteors in the night sky, the US economy just keeps plowing along. Reported later this week, we expect Q3 real GDP grew right on trend at a 1.9% rate another, #PlowHorse report.

A Bit More Hawkish, All Things Considered
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/31/13
Todays statement from the Federal Reserve was almost a carbon copy of the last one in September. No changes to the pace of quantitative easing or interest rates, which is exactly as the consensus expected. The Fed made only minor changes to the text of the statement, making it slightly more hawkish in one spot and slightly more dovish in another.

Fear of Debt Spiral Misplaced
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/28/13
Now that things have settled down in Washington DC, politicians are focusing on a grand compromise to fix the budget. Without reform, growth in entitlements will eventually push federal spending back to levels last seen in World War II.

Closed-End Fund Review
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 10/21/13
The third quarter was a challenging one for many categories of the closed-end fund marketplace.

Smaller Government Won!
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/21/13
Well, New York City is not underwater, China did not sell bonds, oil did not stop flowing in the Bakken or Eagle Ford, the Cloud is still wherever it is, or was, the US stock market did not collapse, and the earth is still rotating on its axis. Democrats are still mad at Republicans, who are still mad at the Tea Party, who still fret about the path of fiscal policy.

No Sign of Economic Problems
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/14/13
With the federal government partially shut for the past couple of weeks, the normal steady stream of economic indicators has slowed to a trickle. Weve missed reports on employment, construction, retail sales, international trade, and inventories.

The Only Story in Town
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/8/13
Its strange times in the United States. The government is partially shut down and isnt releasing any statistics. Even John Muir wouldnt be allowed to hike in a national park. All the while, the President and the Treasury Secretary are predicting an economic calamity for the US (and maybe the globe) if the debt ceiling isnt raised. Yet, they refuse to negotiate to prevent that from happen.

A Decade of Low Volatility with High Dividends
by Ryan Issakainen of First Trust Advisors, 10/7/13
Over the past few years, both low volatility and dividend strategies have resonated with ETF investors, many of whom were seeking more conservative approaches by which to increase exposure to stocks. Adding further demand for these strategies is a growing body of evidence that suggests an association between both factors and improved risk-adjusted returns.

Don't Fret the Shutdown
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 10/4/13
The shutdown allows money that would have been diverted to the government to be kept in the private sector. This may actually lift growth and profits in the quarters ahead. Dont fret the shutdown.

Shutdown: A Good Thing?
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 9/30/13
It looks like House and Senate wont come to a budget agreement by midnight and, as a result, the federal government is going to partially shut down starting Tuesday morning.

Loose and Looser
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 9/23/13
Larry Summers took his name out of the hat and wont be considered for the top spot at the Federal Reserve. And while nothing is a slam dunk, it looks very much like current Vice Chair Janet Yellen is going to get the call from President Obama to step up and replace Bernanke.

Doesn't Government Lie?
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 9/17/13
Like a Plow Horse, the US economy keeps plodding along GDP and payrolls keep growing. This confounds many pessimistic, debt-focused, perma-bear investors, who fall back on the belief that anything good must simply be a lie.

Possible Shutdown, No Default
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 9/9/13
Sometime in the next few weeks, Washington is going to turn its attention from Syria back to the budget.

The Bond Bear is Waking Up
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 9/4/13
Weve been bond bears for quite some time, and we still are. The good news is that the violent part of the bear market has passed. We expect a slower, but still painful and consistent, move higher in interest rates during the quarters ahead. The 30-year bull market in bonds is over.

Summers For Fed Chair
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 8/26/13
In the next month or two, President Obama will pick someone to succeed Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve. At this point, we think the odds-on favorite is Larry Summers.

Part-Timers and the Labor Market
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 8/20/13
Over the past few weeks we keep getting the same two questions about the labor market. Basically, investors want to know whether the labor market is really improving if so many of the jobs are going to part-timers and if the more expansive definition of the unemployment rate (the one that includes discouraged workers and part-timers who want to work full-time) is about double the regular unemployment rate.

A Bear Market Is Here: In Bonds!
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 8/19/13
While it certainly hasnt made the headlines that it should have, the bond market has been kicked in the teeth. After bottoming at 1.61% on May 1, the yield on the 10-year Treasury Note hit 2.84% on Friday, its highest level in two years the worst bear market move in bonds since the end of the 2008-09 financial panic.

Politicizing the Economy
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 8/6/13
If we were put in charge of the world, if we had complete control of fiscal and monetary policy, we would change things.

Fed Shows Its Dovish Side
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 8/2/13
The Federal Reserve made several small changes to the text of its statement, which, combined, suggest a slightly more dovish posture at this meeting than at the last one in June.

Get Ready for a Wild Week
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 7/30/13
Weeks with lots of data are always interesting; but this one will be more wild than most.

More Plow Horse in Q2
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 7/22/13
Forecasting economic growth for the second quarter of the year is always precarious. The reason is that the initial report on the second quarter is when the government goes back and makes revisions to GDP for the past several years. This time around, its particularly iffy because the government for the very first time is going to start accounting in GDP for the value of R&D spending by companies.

Closed-end Fund Review
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 7/18/13
Following a quarter in which the average closed-end fund was up 4.31%, the universe of 595 funds was lower by 5.60% on a share price total return basis during the second quarter (both figures from Morningstar). For many funds, most of the weakness occurred during the month of June (when the average fund was lower by 6.09% on a share price total return basis, according to Morningstar).

Deficit? What Deficit?
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 7/16/13
Hope that title caught your attention, but, you should know, we are only half joking. In June, the federal government recorded a $116.5 billion surplus! Yep, you read that right surplus! the largest surplus for any June ever. Government spending fell to $170 billion for June, 47% below last year.

Obamacare and Stocks
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 7/8/13
For much of the past four years, we have felt like psychologists who constantly must help hypochondriacs over their fear of one thing after another. There is no reason to remind everyone of the list its been endless, but the stock market and the economy have moved consistently higher despite these fears.

Watching Nominal GDP
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 7/1/13
One of the most important foundations of modern macroeconomics is something called the equation of exchange. It dates all the way back to John Stuart Mill but, in the past couple of generations, was popularized by free-market icon Milton Friedman.

Back to Normal
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 6/25/13
Market behavior especially since Fed Chair Ben Bernanke mentioned QE tapering has been relatively dramatic. Not unprecedented, but dramatic. By contrast, the reaction of the punditry has been way over the top.

Fed Slightly More Optimistic
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 6/20/13
The Federal Reserve made only slight changes to the text of its statement, but those it did make signal slightly more optimism. It said labor market conditions show further improvement, rather than some improvement and sees diminished downside risks for the broader economy.

Keynesian Model Blew It Again
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 6/17/13
If theres one economic conclusion we can make from recent data, its that the Keynesian model has failed - again.

Is QE Really THAT Important?
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 6/3/13
The punditry has decided that anything good happening is actually bad. It is all just a sugar high based on Quantitative Easing and government stimulus and that talk of winding down or tapering QE is negative. So the latest fear is that any good data on growth is actually bad, because it means the Fed will wind down QE. They say the economy cant possibly grow on its own without support from the Fed and Ben Bernanke.

Still Bullish
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 5/20/13
Like Rip Van Winkle, imagine you went to sleep on October 9, 2007 and didnt wake up until yesterday. On 10/9/2007, equities were at record highs: 14,165 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 1,565 for the S&P 500.

It's Not That Bad Out There
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 5/14/13
Certain things, like the sun rising, or the tides shifting, can be counted on. Its also true that when government shrinks as a share of GDP, things start to pick up.

Navigating Opportunities in Senior Loan and High Yield Corporate Bond ETFs
by Ryan Issakainen of First Trust Advisors, 5/7/13
In this newsletter, we will consider how senior loan and high yield corporate bond ETFs may be utilized by investors to pursue a higher level of income while seeking to mitigate the impact of rising interest rates. Well discuss why we believe benchmark indices are flawed investment strategies for gaining exposure to these asset classes, and well highlight how First Trust utilizes active management to seek better risk-adjusted returns than passive senior loan and high yield corporate bond index ETFs.

Fed Doesn't Budge
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 5/2/13
It would be hard to find a policy statement from the Federal Reserve with as few changes as the one issued today. The Fed made no changes to monetary policy and only minor changes to the language of its statement. Even the lone dissent, from Kansas City Fed Bank President Esther George, was a carbon copy from the last statement in March.

Closed-End Fund Review
by Jeff Margolin of First Trust Advisors, 4/25/13
The first quarter of 2013 was a solid quarter for many closed-end funds, with the average fund up 4.31% on a share price total return basis, according to Morningstar. As you would expect, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketing 11.25% in the quarter, which represented the best first quarter for the index since 1998, and with the Standard and Poors 500 up 10.03%, domestic equity funds were up on average 11.80% during the quarter on a share price total return basis.

Guess What? Growth is Back!
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 4/22/13
The first quarter has come and gone and lots of data have been released. Still, there are pieces of data missing and these missing data points make forecasting GDP treacherous.

Keynes And Retail Sales
by Brian Wesbury, Bob Stein of First Trust Advisors, 4/15/13
No, just because retail sales fell 0.4% in March does not mean Keynes was right. Sequestration did not cause the decline. Nor did the end of the temporary 2% payroll tax cut, back in January, cause it either.
Results 701–750 of 942 found.