Select a category
Advertisement
Instablog9ja
14 m
10
Panicked Nigeria superstar Victor Boniface pleaded for his country’s unplanned stay inside a Libyan airport to be ended immediately.
The Super Eagles are furious and are planning to forfeit Tuesday’s game after their AFCON 2025 qualifier was thrown into a state of flux with players revealing they have been without water, food and wifi. And fears over the ongoing stay in Libya – at a base which wasn’t the scheduled airport – has escalated in the wake of the Super Eagles star’s frightening update. A worried Boniface, posting to his social media, said: “This is getting scary now You guys can have the point. We just want to return to our country.”
Investopedia
15 m
14
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-1485794147-26092ea6d1134ae7b46ee1b37de77fd1.jpg)
Market volatility, high interest rates, inflation and the upcoming presidential election haven't affected the investment strategies of most exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors.
Most ETF investors surveyed by Charles Schwab (SCHW) Asset Management said that these economic and political events did not change the way they invest in ETFs. In fact, roughly a third of the investors put more money into ETFs based on their reading of stock market volatility, high interest rates and persistent inflation, according to the survey results released this week.
ETFs have a track record across market cycles, said David Botset, Managing Director, Head of Innovation and Stewardship at Schwab Asset Management, adding that "investors are confident in their investments even when the outlook is uncertain.”
ETF investors have grown more bullish on certain types of stocks and sectors since last year: 69% are bullish on technology and 60% on growth stocks.
Additionally, 55% of investors are optimistic about the the Magnificent 7, a group of seven mega-cap technology companies including Nvidia (NVDA), Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA).
The Mag 7 stocks have a big influence on the stock markets and have driven much of the S&P 500's returns over the past year. But when they falter, as they did in July this year, they tend to drag the broader stock market down with them.
The survey also showed how investment preferences vary across generations.
For instance, 62% of millennials (or those born between 1981 and 1996), said they plan to invest in cryptocurrency ETFs over the next year versus 15% of Boomers (or those born between 1946 and 1964). A quarter of millennials said they plan to invest in alternatives ETFs, compared with just 11% of boomers.
At the same time, 44% of millennials also want to increase their exposure to lower-risk fixed income ETFs. In contrast, fewer GenX (34%) and Boomer (26%) investors plan to do likewise.
This is in line with other recent studies that point to recent stock market volatility making millennials more risk-averse compared to some older generations.
Do you have a news tip for Investopedia reporters? Please email us at [email protected]Read more on Investopedia
Advertisement
Instablog9ja
1 h
14
Nollywood actress Adesua Etomi and her husband, singer and actor Banky W, have welcomed their second child. The couple, who tied the knot in a star-studded ceremony in 2017, shared the joyous news with close friends and family.
This new addition comes after the birth of their first child, Zaiah, in early 2021. Fans and well-wishers have since flooded social media with messages of congratulations and love for the couple.
Instablog9ja
2 hrs
10
What You Need To Know Ahead Of UnitedHealth’s Earnings
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Will Repor...
Investopedia
2 hrs
15
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-1594258229-5b54bbf20afe48f1ae37d488f0d047a2.jpg)
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) will report third-quarter earnings before the opening bell Tuesday, with investors likely to be watching for continued growth from its Optum division.
The health insurer is expected to post third-quarter revenue of $99.3 billion, an over 7% increase year-over-year, and net income of $6.16 billion, up from $5.84 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Last quarter, revenue from UnitedHealth's Optum division jumped 11.7% year-over-year to $62.9 billion as it added more patients at Optum Health and raised the number of customers using its Optum Rx pharmacy service.
Analysts expect $63.7 billion this quarter, which would represent a 12% increase. The number of Optum Health patients and those using the OptumRx pharmacy service are also expected to grow from the year-ago quarter.
UnitedHealth may also provide updates on its lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) after the agency downgraded the quality rating of its Medicare Advantage plans.
UnitedHealth alleges that CMS lowered its ratings “based on an arbitrary and capricious assessment of how [UHC’s] call center handled a single phone call that lasted less than ten minutes,” according to a complaint filed in a Texas district court.
The company had 7.7 million members on Medicare Advantage plans at the end of the second quarter. That could change with the open enrollment period beginning on Oct. 15.
UnitedHealth shares have gained nearly 14% in 2024 so far, at $598.05 as of Friday's close.
Do you have a news tip for Investopedia reporters? Please email us at [email protected]Read more on Investopedia
Advertisement
Investopedia
3 hrs
10
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-2177437938-852f8f2faf614ce0a87320a858ef421b.jpg)
The yield on 10-year Treasurys crossed 4.1% for the first time since July this week, extending an ascent that has paradoxically coincided with the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury has risen by about half a percentage point since dipping below 3.6% on Sept. 17, the day before the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark federal funds rate from its highest level in more than 20 years.
Stock investors are often unnerved by rising yields for a few reasons. First, they draw money away from the stock market and lower stock valuations by increasing the yield on lower-risk fixed-income securities. Second, they discourage consumer and business borrowing, weighing on economic growth and corporate profits in the process.
Yet rising Treasury yields haven't stood in the way of stocks in recent weeks. The S&P 500 on Friday closed at its 45th record high of the year as the 10-year yield was at a two-month high. Major stock indexes have posted gains in five consecutive weeks.
Stocks have been supported lately by growing conviction on Wall Street that the U.S. economy’s strength can support corporate profits. Earnings have mostly held up through years of elevated interest rates, and the Fed’s easing cycle—whether aggressive or more measured—should mostly be a tailwind for business and stocks.
Bank of America analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to grow 15% next year. They also forecast growth will continue to broaden beyond the Magnificent Seven—Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG; GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA)—which accounted for an outsized share of the index’s earnings growth and market performance in 2023. The "Other 493," the earnings of which were declining or stagnant throughout 2023 and early 2024, are expected to record double-digit earnings growth in each of the next five quarters.
According to one study from British asset manager Schroders, rising yields compressed stock valuations in 6 of the 11 periods between 1970 and 2021 that they characterize as "rising yield environments." And yet stocks advanced in all but two of those periods because earnings grew fast enough to offset lower valuations.
Few experts expect the 10-year yield to rise much further than it already has, another reason yields are unlikely to derail the bull market.
“The US economy is healthy & unlikely to see recession near term but it also doesn't appear to be meaningfully re-accelerating,” wrote Bank of America analysts in a recent note. They expect the Fed to continue cutting rates next year, and forecast the 10-year yield will sit around 3.75% at the end of both 2024 and 2025.
Lawrence Gillum, Chief Fixed Income Strategist at LPL Financial, sees a little more room for rates to tick up but still expects yields to fluctuate within a 3.75-4.25% range throughout the rest of the year.
The surprising strength of the U.S. economy is a key reason for the peculiar divergence between interest rates and yields. The unemployment rate declined in September when the U.S. added far more jobs than expected, according to data from the Labor Department released last week. And inflation ran slightly hot in September, according to data released Thursday.
That’s led Wall Street to doubt the Fed will need to continue aggressively cutting rates to prevent an economic crisis. Last month, the prevailing view among market participants was that the Fed would lower rates by another 75 basis points (0.75%) before the end of the year. Now, the market sees no chance the Fed will move that quickly, according to fed fund futures trading data.
As the outlook for interest rates has changed, so has the market price of Treasurys and, subsequently, their yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices. When investors think that interest rates are going to be lower in the future than they are now, that increases the price—and decreases the yield—of Treasurys trading on the secondary market because they’re expected to pay a higher coupon than future debt. The opposite happens when investors think interest rates will be higher in the future, and the strength of recent labor market data has convinced Wall Street of that.
Do you have a news tip for Investopedia reporters? Please email us at [email protected]Read more on Investopedia
