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| BondsOnline.com: instant access to and extensive coverage of over 3.5 million stocks, bonds, indexes and other securities covering major and emerging markets and exchanges across the globe. |
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| Bonds Online |
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| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
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S&P National Bond Index
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3.00% |
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S&P California Bond Index
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2.96% |
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S&P New York Bond Index
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3.13% |
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S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
|
0.70% |
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| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
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| Income Equities: |
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| Preferred Stocks |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
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848.03 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
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636.26 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
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1,701.05 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
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1,276.26 |
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| REITs |
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S&P REIT Index
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174.07 |
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S&P REIT Index (TR)
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425.30 |
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| MLPs |
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S&P MLP Index
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2,469.58 |
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S&P MLP Index (TR)
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5,428.50 |
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See Data
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Bond ETF Revolution? State Street Plans Fundamental Fixed Income Fund |
ETFdb - Jan. 25, 2011 - by ERIC DUTRAM
State Street, the Boston-based firm that maintains a broad-based lineup of fixed income ETFs, recently made an interesting SEC filing detailing plans for a new type of bond ETF. The proposed SPDR Barclays Capital Issuer Scored Corporate Bond ETF (CBND) would seek to replicate the performance of the Barclays Capital Issuer Scored Corporate Index, a benchmark that uses fundamental factors to determine underlying holdings.
The majority of fixed income benchmarks that serve as the basis of ETFs are cap weighted, meaning that the larger an eligible debt issue by market value, the larger the weighting within the index. But closer scrutiny on index construction and maintenance methodologies has caused some to rethink the manner in which they achieve fixed income exposure. Last year, PowerShares switched the index linked to its high yield bond ETF (PHB) to the RAFI High Yield Bond Index, a benchmark developed by Research Affiliates. That index uses a “RAFI weight” to determine eligible components and corresponding weightings; RAFI weights take into account four fundamental factors of the issuer, including book value, gross sales, gross dividends, and cash flow. As such, the methodology has a tendency to identify issuers with strong underlying fundamentals, as opposed to simply highlighting the biggest debtors [see A Different Kind Of Junk Bond ETF].
The proposed fund from State Street has some similarities to the methodology behind PHB, as well as some noticeable differences. As far as the differences, the State Street ETF would focus on investment grade debt; securities eligible for inclusion in the underlying index include publicly issued U.S. dollar denominated corporate issues that are rated investment grade (Baa3/BBB- or higher) by at least two of the three major ratings agencies and have $250 million or more of par amount outstanding. And the fundamental factors used to screen debt are different as well; individual issuers in the index are weighted using three fundamental financial ratios, including return on assets, interest coverage (EBIT/Interest Expense), and current ratio [also see The Definitive Guide To Emerging Market Bond ETF Investing].
Fundamental weighting has become increasingly popular in the equity space, where a handful of products from various issuers are linked to fundamentally-weighted indexes [see ProShares Launches Long/Short RAFI ETF]. But fundamental weighting has been slow to catch on in the fixed income arena; so far, PHB is the only bond ETF to embrace the RAFI methodology.
For the complete article.
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| Stuff to look at |
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| BondsOnline Advisor |
Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
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