Here’s the latest installment of our ongoing review of ETFs that can be used to replicate the Global Market Index (GMI), a passive, unmanaged benchmark that’s comprised of the major asset classes. In the previous edition, we looked at broadly defined, investment-grade U.S. bond funds. Today’s focus is on high yield ETFs.
Daily Archives: April 3, 2012
Strategic Briefing | 4.3.12 | Warm Weather & The Economy
The winter of our content? How much did weather skew U.S. data?
Irwin Kellner (MarketWatch) | Apr 3
All eyes will turn to the March employment data, to be released this Friday, to see if this improvement was real or merely a statistical illusion. The weather is usually more benign at this time of year, so any distortions from seasonal adjustments tend to be minimal. Nonfarm payrolls grew an average of 245,000 between December and February after expanding by an average of only 157,000 in the three prior months. That’s quite a jump. If March’s employment stats are as good or better than the previous three months, it could be sign that the winter’s improvement was real. But if March disappoints, it would mean that the strength over the winter was nothing but a chimera.