Trader Mark submits: With the weakness in Brazil the past week, we are going to take this opportunity to begin a long-term stake in Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap (BRF). We highlighted this name in the summer under $29 [Jun 2, 2009: Market Vectors Brazil Small Cap (BRF) - a New ETF for Exposure to Brazil] [...]

Lawrence Weinman submits: Courtesy of the folks from iShares I attended a presentation that included a lunch talk by Fareed Zakharia of Newsweek and CNN. I have heard many speakers at occasions of this type and never have I heard anything close in terms of clarity intelligence and content. The theme was the growth of [...]

David Merkel submits: Bond indexes are what they are. They represent the average dollar invested in the bond markets. Those that say that the indexes are flawed miss the point. Indexes represent the average return of an asset class, with all of its warts and wrinkles. That is the nature of an index — it [...]

Gary Gordon submits: For 5 trading days, the U.S. dollar was in strong demand. And for 5 days, stocks and commodities were punished mercilessly. Consider just how quickly the sentiment shifted towards buying the U.S. dollar. The PowerShares DB Dollar Bullish Fund (UUP) had quietly gone about losing ground on a fairly regular basis for [...]

Michael Johnston submits: Earnings season continued on Wednesday with announcements from several major global energy firms. Exxon Mobil (XOM), the world’s largest oil company, reported earnings of $4.7 billion, or 98 cents per share, representing a 68% drop from year ago levels when the company set earnings records. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.06 [...]