FTDS News and Press, FIRST TRUST EXCH From 07/06/22

At the G7 meeting last week, the group agreed on banning Russian gold imports, while working on a mechanism to cap the price of Russian crude oil. Essentially, the G7 is trying to create a “buyer’s cartel” to set a cap on the price of Russian crude oil. After U.S....

A recession is not defined as two consecutive quarters of declining real GDP, though that’s a common rule of thumb. Real GDP dropped 1,6% in the first quarter of 2022. Second quarter estimates will be released in late July, with revisions in August and September as more data be...

Central bankers around the world acted in concert to combat inflation by quickly raising rates. Higher interest rates are toxic for both stocks and bonds. Wise investors understand economics and numbers can only go so far in explaining what is happening from day to day in the mark...

Spiking inflation, rising interest rates and growing fears of a US recession dominated global equity markets in the second quarter. The market shock reflects runaway inflation in several regions, which has fostered uncertainty and policy differences around the world. Cash flows ar...

A strong labor market is contributing to inflationary pressures. Critically, the working-age population is hardly growing at all in the U.S., and the 15-24 age cohort of new individuals entering the job market is slightly shrinking. There are signs that we may be seeing a very mod...

Earnings expectations have remained resilient across U.S., Europe, and Canada as we enter the second half of the year with most global benchmarks down 15-20%. At a high level, earnings dispersion is classified as ‘low’ with over half of the index having a value less than...

We are in an interesting junction in the MELA system as the interplay between the fall in the stock market and the economy may be reaching a make or break point. Oil and gasoline prices usually trade in different directions from transportation stocks. But what does it mean when they b...

Recession fears and an accelerated Federal Reserve interest rate hiking trajectory weighed on markets during the second quarter, resulting in the weakest first half performance since 1970. The short end of the yield curve increased dramatically during Q2, with policy interest rates st...

Depending on your risk and diversification, you’ve lost between 4% and 20% so far this year. Unlike most other periods when stocks lost money, bonds have not defended well this time. Target date funds have a wide spread of performance for those near retirement. All as...

While the Fed forecasts tend to help market participants understand the future course of policy, they should also be looked at with a dose of skepticism. The projections are as much a product of econometric models as they are an attempt for the Fed to guide the markets (and economy) i...