SMLE News and Press, Xtrackers S&P SmallCap 600 ESG ETF From 12/21/22

Summary While falling commodity prices signal potential easing in inflation, it’s not necessarily a good sign. That’s because assets peak in a predictable order: bonds, stocks, and then commodities. Crude Oil has fallen to the lowest level in over a year, suffering a weekl...

Summary An all-time low in interest rates was reached when the Fed cut the fed funds rate to approximately zero in late 2008 in an effort to pull the economy out of the GFC. The Fed deemed the inflation “transitory,” it continued its policies of low-interest rates and quan...

Summary Return divergences were largely an outgrowth of the collapse in resource stocks. Amid the extreme risk-on/risk-off swings in sentiment spurred by the pandemic and Russia/Ukraine war, industry performances have been as polarized as they've ever been in a decade. The turbulent...

Summary Small caps have trailed the broader index in eight of the past ten calendar years. While a small reversion to the mean could represent a meaningful buying opportunity in small caps, we believe simple indexation is a risky way to invest in small caps. High-quality active mana...

Summary The SEC has proposed amendments to RegNMS. There is a better alternative. The key to a more efficient market structure is to put the entire system into the hands of retail investors. Introduction The SEC made two primary proposals in recent amendments to Regulation...

Summary The S&P 500 is down just over 20% since January 4th and a seasonally unusual -6.4% month to date. Sentiment reports may appear bearish, but equity positioning, especially in household portfolios, remains (as shown below in yellow) near the secular peaks of 1966, 2000 and 202...

Summary MarketCap/GVA is our most reliable valuation gauge in market cycles across history, including recent decades. To expect a large positive outlier over the coming years is to rely on bubble valuations to prevail at the end of the holding period. Interest rates are nowhere near...

Summary The credit cycle and the economic cycle are excellent leading indicators of volatility. Both are likely to continue deteriorating in the months ahead. As such, expect high stock market volatility to be a mainstay for 2023. High Volatility Set To Continue Eq...

Summary The top two mega themes in terms of global net inflows in 2022 were Climate Change-related themes and Big Data. The largest net outflows came from tech-heavy themes, led by Robotics & Automation. 2023 may bring a return to more normal markets driven by economics rather t...

Summary U.S. debt levels are more than twice as high today as they were during the economy of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 2022, the Fed raised rates by 425bps, the biggest policy tightening in a single year since 1981. The Fed Funds Futures curve suggests that the Fed will ti...