Sunday, 18 October 2026
Global markets, trading & world business — for professional traders
SUMMARY Rising interest rates dampened global stock returns overall. Energy and Technology-related equities led in performance. Rate-sensitive and value-oriented themes struggled. In the third quarter of 2026, we saw eq…
The ETF arena continues to evolve rapidly, driven by mutual fund conversions, targeted semiconductor supply chain plays, and expanding active management offerings across global equity and income allocations. Key Takeawa…
Digital asset fund flows across all issuers lost momentum this week, a marked slowdown after US$11.1B of inflows since mid-July. Much of that earlier demand appears to have reflected investors buying at depressed valuat…
Global economic growth is expected to slow to 2.6% in 2026 from 2.9% last year as the energy shock triggered by the crisis in the Middle East puts pressure on the world economy, the United Nations trade and development …
For investors navigating a changing rate environment, derivative income strategies remain a compelling tool for generating alternative cash flows beyond standard fixed income. The Amplify Energy & Natural Resources Cove…
Advisors choosing between two similar ETFs often let the lower expense ratio decide, but that fee says little about a fund’s liquidity. It may not even point to the cheaper fund to own, according to State Street Investm…
Energy has been the strongest corner of State Street Investment Management’s premium income ETF lineup this year. Shares of the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR Premium Income ETF (XLEI) are up 32.7% so far in 202…
For investors in Singapore looking for broad global equity exposure through a single ETF, VWRA remains one of the most popular options in 2026. The Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (Acc) gives investors exposure to tho…
The UK banking system is strong enough to support households and businesses, even in a period of stress
According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, market breadth has declined in the U.S. in recent months. This has caused small caps to lag large caps. Small-cap stocks had another weak session on October 7. As a result, the large-…
Over the past decade, the North American midstream universe has undergone a significant transformation. This has been driven in large part by companies’ increased free cash flow generation. This shift marked a decisive …
September saw the influx of dollars into U.S. ETFs continue, despite the fact that the year had already surpassed the record level seen in all of 2025, with another three months yet to go for 2026. With $1.5 trillion in…
It’s no understatement to say ETFs are becoming an increasingly popular investment vehicle in today’s market. Key Takeaways: With over 1,000 ETFs launched in 2025 alone, advisors and investors have myriad choices to bui…
On Wednesday, the combined assets invested in the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the State Street SPDR Porfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) passed the $1 trillion mark for the first time. SPY, the first-ever U.S.-listed…
SCHD is a fine dividend ETF, but investors chasing higher income often stumble into covered call funds that quietly erode their principal with every distribution. There is a middle path worth examining before you make t…
Broadly speaking, when advisors and investors consider adding focused industry exposure to a portfolio, there needs to be a strong justification for doing so. Take the AI industry, for example, where sustained buildout …
After Bitcoin's tremendous rally to new highs around $126,000 last year, it shed essentially all of those gains in the final months of 2025 and is now down about 4% on a trailing-12-month basis. Still, with new legislat…
A Treasury Department warning on the tax strategy behind 351 exchange ETFs led this week’s ETF Prime. Host Nate Geraci and Cinthia Murphy, director of research at TMX VettaFi, previewed the top storylines for the fourth…
Yields and rates continue to climb, as debt markets contend with growing risk and huge capex by the AI hyperscalers. That has impacted bond values, and started to increase attention and flows to short-term bond offering…
Energy stocks have seen volatile but powerful growth this year, as wars in Iran and Ukraine have limited their petroleum exports and boosted global oil prices. The protracted conflicts are likely to continue keeping ene…
In 2026, surging global bond yields — including here in the U.S. — are acting as significant headwinds to the gold investing thesis. But all things considered, the 3.74% year-to-date loss sported by the largest gold-bac…
September WTI crude oil (CLU26) is down -0.19 (-0.23%), and September RBOB gasoline (RBU26) is down -0.0276 (-0.88%).
Japan's real wages climbed 1.5 percent in August compared with the same month a year earlier, according to Reuters, extending the run of increases to eight consecutive months and signaling a continuing recovery in pay g…
Generation mix: coal 1479 TWh (74%); hydro 144 TWh (7%); solar 119 TWh (6%); wind 93.5 TWh (5%); natural gas 58.8 TWh (3%); nuclear 47.9 TWh (2%); biofuels & waste 41.4 TWh (2%); oil 4.2 TWh