Neil Azous

The financial services sector, the S&P 500's third-largest sector allocation, is the midst of its usual earnings avalanche and while the bank reports haven't been bad, there has been a familiar theme: companies guiding lower on net interest margins. What Happened Slack net interest...

The Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE), the largest equity-based energy exchange traded fund, is up almost 4% this month and ahead of the sector's big-name earnings reports, some traders see opportunity with the bellwether energy ETF. What Happened The $12.44 billion XLE holds 29 stocks and...

The latest market segment to take center stage in the U.S.-China war is the rare earths space. The previously moribund VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (NYSE: REMX) followed up Monday's heavy volume gain of 6 percent with an almost 5 percent pop on Tuesday. What To Know The...

Mortgage real estate investment trusts, also known as mREITs, are an income-generating asset class that has been made more accessible to a broader swath of investors thanks to exchange traded funds. The largest mREIT ETFs and the underlying securities themselves are high-yield assets, making them...

Japanese stocks haven't been immune to the downside experienced this year by ex-U.S. developed markets equities. In fact, Japan is one of the worst ex-U.S. developed markets offenders as highlighted by a year-to-date loss of 5.62 percent for the MSCI Japan Index. While Japanese stocks are among...

The iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF (NASDAQ: EUFN) is down just over 1 percent year-to-date. While it's not alarming decline by any mean, it's a broad view: a more focused look at EUFN reveals the exchange traded fund resides about 11 percent below the 52-week high it set in February....

The U.S. dollar remains a dud among developed currencies in 2017, but there the downtrodden greenback has the potential to pare its losses into the end of the year. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE: UUP) is up nearly 2 percent over the past month, a move that has trimmed the...

As has been widely documented, the U.S. dollar is an epic disappointment this year in the currency world, ensuring the same can be said of the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE: UUP) among currency exchange-traded funds. UUP, the ETF proxy for the U.S. Dollar Index, is down more...

Heading into Tuesday's trading session, the iShares MSCI Australia ETF (NYSE: EWA) was up 7.1 percent year to date. That performance sounds solid, but when noting Australian stocks are more volatile than their U.S. equivalents and broader benchmarks of ex-US developed market equities,...

Emerging markets are surging again this year, proving last year's resurgence was no fluke. For tactical traders and investors who use single-country exchange-traded funds, there is some good news. That being, it is possible to outperform broader emerging markets benchmarks without embracing the...

The technology sector, the largest sector allocation in the S&P 500, will be delivering some big-name earnings reports this week. Typically, that could mean the potential for increased volatility for exchange-traded funds tracking the sector, including the Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:...

For part of last year, the low volatility trade, particularly as measured by the iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA ETF (NYSE: USMV) and the PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (NYSE: SPLV), was scorching hot. However, by the end of the year, investors were favoring higher beta, cyclical...

Heading into this year, global investors were acutely aware of the potential for eurozone political volatility as several of the region's largest economies hold national elections this year. For example, Germany and France, the two largest eurozone economies, head to the polls in elections that...

Among single-country emerging markets exchange-traded funds, few, if any, have spent more time in the post-election limelight than the VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE: RSX). RSX, the largest and most heavily traded Russia ETF listed in New York, was one of last year's best-performing single-...

Given all the talk of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other associated theories about the relationship, if any, between President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is not surprising the VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (...