Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pimco, says the new fund ‘signals an important phase in the development of the ETF marketplace.’© Jason Reed / Reuters
Everyday we scour the web for the most interesting or informative investing news items, columns or blogs, and present the links in our new daily premarket blog post.
In case you missed some, here's a recap of the links from last week:
STRATEGIES
Bill Gross's Pimco fund has been selling some of its Treasury holdings and is putting money into what the Fed and the European Central Bank plan to buy as part of their stimulus measures: agency mortgages and Spanish and Italian debt.
With the global economy slowing and the U.S. dollar strengthening it may now be time to invest in companies more tied to the U.S. economy, some market pros are saying.
Convertible bond funds are often marketed as providing equity market returns but with less risk. Sounds great, but there is a cost.
Four common trading mistakes and how to avoid them.
Retail investors are jumping into syndicated loans.
Profit-starved hedge fund managers, best known as masters of the financial universe, are turning to an unlikely place for their next windfall: the unglamorous world of long-only asset management.
The market has been eating up Warren Buffett's bearish comments on munis. What will the market do with PIMCO increasingly becoming a municipal bond bull?
Four keys to successful long-term investing.
Many countries beyond the U.S. and Canada have adopted or proposed limits on high-speed trading.
MARKET SIGNALS
This is the first week since August 2 that the percentage of bearish investors outnumber the percentage of bullish investors.
Excessive optimism tends to occur in the latter parts of a rally and, right now, most indicators are pointing towards excessive optimism.
How the market usually performs the year following a Presidential election period.
For the first time in over four months, options, or implied volatility, is inexpensive and represents a buying opportunity.
A careful market analysis of the last three decades suggests that the Dow Jones Transportation Average is not the leading indicator that so many think it is.
Four bullish U.S. stock charts worth watching.
Goldman Sachs strategists expect the "fiscal cliff" to push the market lower in the fourth quarter, and they recommend investors sell the stocks that have lagged so far this year.
Goldman Sachs sees shifting tax conditions in 2013 leading to "a wave of special dividend announcements" in the near future amid a "perfect alchemy to reward shareholders."
Many countries beyond the U.S. and Canada have adopted or proposed limits on high-speed trading.
ETFs
Five Canadian ETFs that should be more popular.
How to use ETFs to profit from a further rally in silver.
This often overlooked palladium ETF is another way to ride the quantitative easing rally in precious metals.
Since mid-July, gold miner ETFs have been beating physically held funds like GLD handily. So what's going on?
STOCK PICKS
The 10 most-shorted U.S. stocks.
14 stocks to ride the iPhone 5's success.
ECONOMICS
Fed watchers believe the Federal Reserve's next move will be to outright buy Treasurys, most likely at its meeting in early December.
Eight early warning signs U.S. inflation is percolating.
Argentina may be demoted from the list of "frontier markets."
Why the Australian dollar has held up even as iron ore and coal prices, the nation's major exports, have been falling.
Why housing stocks' big run may slow despite some recent promising data.
Morgan Stanley chief equity strategist Adam Parker believes the U.S. Fed soon will find its new quantitative easing program inadequate.
COMPANY NEWS & VIEWS
Facebook's 40 per cent plunge from its initial public offering price of $38 (U.S.) in May has millions of investors asking a single question: Is the stock a buy? According to Barron's, the short answer is "no."
Research In Motion is dangerously close to a distinction that few companies achieve: trading for less than its net current asset value.
Google's recent rally has catapulted the stock in the ranks of the biggest U.S. companies. It's now the fifth largest firm by market cap, ahead of General Electric, and is closing in on Microsoft, too.
... but just under a quarter of Google Android users are looking to switch to an Apple iPhone, according to a market research specialist.
General Motors has shed its legacy costs. So why is its market share still declining?
The New York Times on why Apple's best days may soon be behind it.
... and another bearish view on Apple, this one from Doug Kass of alternative investment firm Seabreeze Partners Management. He cites 10 concerns.
With revenue streams drying up and fewer places to cut costs, corporate America's outlook for third-quarter earnings is looking grim.
With the global economy slowing and the U.S. dollar strengthening it may now be time to invest in companies more tied to the U.S. economy, some market pros are saying.
AND THE JUST PLAIN ODD
A drunken broker sent oil to an eight-month high.
Darcy Keith