By SIMON CONSTABLE
After more than half a decade of record-busting price moves, the palladium market hit a bump in the road. The slowdown in the global economy, including the drop in car sales, is the problem.
“I would expect us to see sideways rangebound trade,” says Steve Dunn, head of exchange-traded funds at Aberdeen Standard, which runs the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL). Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Many investors are familiar with the VIX, or volatility index, that measures how much investors expect to see the S&P 500 index fluctuate.
But far fewer know even a little about a measure of volatility in economic growth called the Economic VIX Index, created by Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at investment-management and research firm Leuthold Group. The Economic VIX is important now because its history over the decades since World War II shows that stocks do best when economic volatility in the U.S. is at its lowest or its highest—and the pandemic is stoking economic volatility that Mr. Paulsen believes will be historic. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
So far this year, investors in gold and silver have made out like bandits, especially when you compare the returns of the world’s two best-known precious metals with those of stocks.
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of bullion, and iShares Silver Trust (SLV), an ETF that tracks silver prices, are up 34% and 57%, respectively, so far this year. That compares to just a 4% gain for SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 stock index. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The stock-market volatility in the first half of 2020 should have been a near-perfect period for “long-short” mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to make a killing.
Unfortunately, less than one in three such funds made money for investors during this tumultuous period. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Corn prices look set to rise over the next few weeks as extreme weather and agricultural pests put a dent in the harvest of the world’s two largest producers of the grain.
“Our estimate is that the corn price reaches $3.80 plus or minus 20 cents in the fall,” says Shawn Hackett, president of Boca Raton-based Hackett Financial Advisors.
In other words, corn prices could easily reach $4 a bushel, or about 24% higher than recent prices of around $3.22. Read more here.
