financials

2016 was supposed to be the year of the banks. As investors counted down the final moments of 2015, they looked hopefully toward the banking sector as economic recovery, rising inflation and improving bond yields were seen benefitting the industry. However, those hopes were quickly dashed, as...

Thanks to dozens of cuts courtesy of the energy sector, dividends are off to a rough start in 2016. However, low volatility stocks and exchange-traded funds continue to be favored hideouts. Those scenarios would appear to mean a dichotomy for the PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility...

In a new report, Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck discussed what bank investors can expect if the U.S. falls into a recession or if market fears end up overblown and the economy remains stable. According to Graseck, the risk/reward balance is currently moderately bullish. Morgan Stanley...

A flattening yield curve and diminishing expectations that the Federal Reserve will be able to raise interest rates multiple times this year are among the factors dragging on U.S. bank stocks and the relevant exchange-traded funds. If higher interest rates really are efficacious for bank stocks,...

This week has been a brutal one so far for European banks, as the sector has seen a steep decline amid worries about bad debts and future instability. Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE: DB) has fallen nearly 40 percent so far this year, and others like Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS) and BNP...

Financial sector stocks took a beating in January as investors worried about how banks would cope with falling energy prices and an economic downturn in China. At the close of 2015, banking stocks were high on investors' buy-lists, as most were expecting the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes...

Seventeen exchange-traded products hit 52-week lows on Tuesday. None were equity-based energy ETFs, nor were any financial services funds. However, that does not obfuscate the fact that the Select Sector Financial Slct Str SPDR Fd (NYSE: XLF), the largest financial services ETF by assets, is down...

The cover story in this weekend's Barron's makes a case that the big banks are set for a rebound. The prospects and the headwinds for 10 leading bank stock are laid out. A companion article also lists five battered tech stocks to consider now. With the markets off sharply in January, investors...

Mid-January has been ripe with banking earnings reports, with Q4 results coming in quite lackluster for big banks. In a note out Thursday, Oppenheimer described the industry's anticipated movements within the context of past performances. In the past, Oppenheimer has maintained a "...

Finance firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) has become a pillar of the financial sector with traders looking to the bank's advice for everything from investing to saving. For that reason, Goldman Sachs Director Don Duet's positive remarks regarding blockchain could be a catalyst for the...

On Monday, 13 exchange-traded funds hit 52-week lows and four, or nearly a third, were financial services funds. Members of that dubious quartet were ETFs with significant exposure to regional banks, an industry that has seen rapidly eroding share prices in recent weeks. The SPDR KBW Regional...

It wasn't supposed to be this way for financial services exchange-traded funds. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates last month, doing so for the first time in nearly a decade, and market observers widely expect a couple of more rate hikes this year. Conventional wisdom dictates higher...

This year was meant to be a profitable one for U.S. banks. The U.S. Federal Reserve finally raised interest rates at the end of 2015, something many saw as a positive catalyst for the financial sector going into 2016. However, so far, banking stocks have gotten off to a rocky start, as investors...

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have had a lot of negative attention over the past year, as several hacking attacks and scams have painted the coins as an unsafe way to make transactions. However, blockchain, the ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on, has received a great deal of praise across...

Over 500 exchange-traded funds, nearly a third of the entire U.S. ETF universe, hit 52-week lows on Wednesday, and plenty of emerging markets ETFs were part of that dubious group. The Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (NYSE: EGPT), the lone ETF dedicated to North Africa's largest economy, was part...