DGRS News and Press, WisdomTree U.S. SmallCap Dividend Growth Fund From 01/21/23

Summary Reserve provisioning by banks against the likelihood of further deterioration in their consumer and small business loan portfolios. Analysts’ earnings estimates are finally catching up to the market, which decided already in 2022 that conditions were headed south. The...

Summary Looking at the most recent readings of many economic indicators, nowcasting gives a more up-to-date reading of the economy than gross domestic product. The weakest US sector is housing. Building permits have been on a downward trend for much of 2022 and dropped again in December...

Summary ClearBridge is a leading global asset manager committed to active management. Research-based stock selection guides our investment approach, with our strategies reflecting the highest-conviction ideas of our portfolio managers. The pro-cyclical tilt of our portfolio helped the S...

Summary DGRS is a small-cap fund that invests in dividend stocks with quality and growth properties. The fund holdings are too big for my definition of small-caps. The quality factor is more like an efficiency ratio. The rebalancing is too infrequent and could be improved on. ...

Summary Falling wages reduce the odds of a 1970s style outcome. The biggest lesson for me was the sheer uncertainty of the future. We keep threatening to default on ourselves over a self-imposed constraint that doesn’t actually constrain anything. Here are some thin...

Summary One of the big stories late last fall was the abrupt about-face turn by the Chinese government on its zero-Covid policy. There is a connection of sorts tying together the newfound fondness for Chinese and European assets. Small-cap domestic stocks do still seem to demonstrat...

Summary Easing supply chain pressures are evident in supplier delivery times, which have been rising at a slower pace recently. Labor shortages did not ease much even as demand weakened. Weak demand conditions are likely to continue limiting companies' ability to sustain high wage g...

Summary The long-term leading indicators of growth and liquidity suggest corporate earnings and profit margins will continue to be pressured throughout 2023. However, as the lags from leading indicators tend to be long and variable, we may not see a material impact in earnings growth un...

Summary Financial conditions indicators are flashing risk embracement and loose conditions. Markets have been so speculative in recent years that squeezes have become commonplace. While powerful squeezes captivate the marketplace, potential accident catalysts make steady headway. ...

Summary Since October 13, 2022, the S&P 500 Index is up 11.80% on a price only basis. For the start of 2023, the S&P 500 Index is up 4.16% through January 13, 2023. As we noted in our recently published Winter Investor Letter, maybe the negativity around the market/economy is ov...