BTO News and Press, John Hancock Financial Opportunities Fund From 11/06/19

The news media, bank executives, the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) chairman and even presidential candidates have made remarks about the recent spike in short-term funding rates. What caused the spike, and why is it important? In mid-September, there was a significant spike in the overnight...

Photo Source: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid. A screen displays the U.S. Federal Reserve interest rates announcement as traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, September 18, 2019. For the month, 64% of all CEFs posted NAV-based returns in the black, with 87% of equity CEFs and ...

Lagging deposit repricing, tight lending spreads, and lower yield curve across all points are putting pressure on banks' net interest margins, writes Credit Suisse's Susan Roth Katzke in a note. More news on: Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF, Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x Shares ETF, Di...

For income investors, closed-end funds, or CEFs, are an attractive investment class that offers high income generally in the range of 6%-10%, broad diversification in terms of a variety of asset classes, and market matching total returns in the long term if selected carefully. However, CEF...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, one of the U.S. government agencies that regulate banks, proposes easing a post-financial crisis restriction that determines how much cash big banks should set aside to safeguard derivatives trades between affiliates. More news on: Financial Sel...

The 10-year Treasury yield whooshed lower earlier today after the ECB announced a rate cut and new wave of QE. That's reversed in a big way, with the yield now higher by 5.5 basis points on the session to 1.79%. TLT   -0.7% , TBT   +1.4% More news on: iShares 20+ Year Treas...

Energy is now just 4.5% of the S&P 500 market cap weight, down from a high of 15% in September 2014, when crude oil was trading around $80-$100 per barrel and just before the commodity tanked to $28 per share by early 2016. It's shocking what has happened to the sector. Can't recall wh...

The Financial sector has been an overweight for some time in client accounts, and it's hurt performance for the last two years, or since Jan 1, '18. Clients' biggest financial weighting has been Schwab (SCHW) given its asset-gathering prowess (and it is our only 3rd party client custodian) a...

Non-bank financial institutions are becoming more active in underwriting, syndication, direct lending, and more aggressive parts of leveraged lending, such as leveraged buyouts and dividend recapitalizations, according to a report by Fitch Ratings that assesses risk of leveraged loan and c...

With interest rates declining and threatening banks' profits, money is flowing out of financial ETFs at the fastest pace of the year. More news on: Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF, Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x Shares ETF, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x Shares ETF, Financial stocks n...