Amazon's October Drop Hurting ETFs

Most recent data shows 246 different Exchange Traded Fund’s owned more than 24.7 million shares of Amazon.com (AMZN). But, the companies recent 20.9% decline in the month of October alone, (Amazon opened October trading at $2,021 per share and closed the month trading at $1,598 per share, or a 20.9% decline) has certainly had an effect on not only those 246 different ETFs and their investors, but also those investors whom may have directly purchased shares of the company. Furthermore, due to its market capitalization, it was a very heavily weighted stock in some large ETFs, which makes its recent decline even more painful.

Some of the hardest hit ETFs over the last month was the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) because Amazon was its second, now third, largest holding and SPY was the single largest owner of Amazon stock. ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN) had 22% of its assets in Amazon as of late, while the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) both had more than 20% of their assets in Amazon.

Throughout the ETF world, there where eight different ETFs which had more than 10% of their assets in Amazon in recent weeks. Most were in the consumer discretionary sector, but a few internet focused ETFs such as the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ), and the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index ETF (FDN) had more than 9% of their assets in Amazon. Continue reading "Amazon's October Drop Hurting ETFs"

The Debt Storm Is Coming

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


While we can debate until we are blue in the face the actual ins and outs of what causes recessions, most would agree that high debt loads play a significant role. If we look back at the 2008-2009 recession, this is very true. Or the dot.com bubble bursting, debt played a large role. Even go a little further back into history and look at the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent recession, mostly fueled by margin trading (investors trading with borrowed money, i.e., using debt to fuel larger trades).

At this point, not many people are talking about the United States current debt levels. Not only is the U.S. government's debt level out of control, but more importantly consumer debt levels are also out of control, and that is likely the more concerning issue.

When consumer debt gets out of hand, first we begin to see increased levels of defaults. That leads to reduced levels of credit as the institutions who lend credit begin to tighten their requirements to borrow. With less available credit, consumers begin spending less on discretionary purchases because they either can't get credit or have maxed out what credit they did possess. Lower spending leads to lower profitability for consumer facing companies, which then leads to a reduced number of jobs in those sectors. Continue reading "The Debt Storm Is Coming"