etf

The global banking industry attracted most of the blame for the 2008/2009 financial crisis. (Canadian banks were one notable exception.)

Under pressure from shareholders and regulators, banks have spent the past decade rebuilding their balance sheets, reducing costs and returning to their core lending business.

A recovery is underway

Much tighter government regulations, increased compliance costs and persistent low interest rates kept the recovery modest for a number of years.

According to the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., global banks collectively increased their revenues by 5.8% annually between 2010 and 2016....

A combination of declining fertility rates and increasing life expectancy continues to fuel the rapid aging of the population.

According to a recent UN World report, the global population of people over 65 years old is expected to jump from 617 million in 2017 to 1.6 billion in 2050....

Here are two recent ETF launches that offer Canadian investors exposure to rapidly expanding niche markets. We also take a look at a well-established, broad-based fund. It offers the same kind of global reach as those new, more narrowly focused ETFs. However, its risk is lower....

Many investors resist holding emerging-market stocks. They are concerned about weaker levels of regulatory oversight, weak corporate governance, market volatility, and political and currency risks.

However, emerging-market economies continue to expand faster than those of the developed world....

After almost a decade of modest gains, emerging markets enjoyed a significant boost in 2017. Growth prospects for those developing nations are now much stronger than those for most developed markets. Even so, company share prices remain attractive.

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ALL CAP INDEX ETF $36 (Toronto symbol VEE; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive, Market cap: $775.7 million) provides broad exposure to companies in emerging markets.

The largest country holdings are in China (26%), Taiwan (14%), India (11%), Brazil (8%) and South Africa (7%)....

India continues its impressive expansion, and remains one of the world’s top ten fastest growing economies.

The country’s major structural reforms, such as the introduction of a nationwide goods and services tax and better funding for state-owned banks, should further speed up growth for 2018 and 2019....

Base metals are highly cyclical commodities, closely tied to global economic growth. Copper, iron, zinc, nickel and aluminum are widely used in manufacturing and infrastructure development. In turn, those projects rely on steady global economic expansion.

The $1 trillion that the Trump administration proposes for infrastructure spending should boost demand for copper and other base metals....

Traditionally, broad indexes, such as the TSX 60 or S&P 500, act as the benchmark for overall risk and return in their respective markets. However, these major indexes are market capitalization weighted. That means a few large stocks can dominate the index and stocks that rise in price are given increasingly large representation.

“Smart beta” ETFs aim to offer an alternative to that weighting system....

Under pressure from shareholders and regulators, banks around the world have spent the past decade rebuilding their balance sheets, reducing costs and returning to their core banking business. After the global financial crisis of 2008/2009, much tighter government regulations, increased compliance costs and low interest rates have kept the recovery modest....

JANUS LONG-TERM CARE ETF $23 (Nasdaq symbol OLD; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $9.4 million) invests in companies that operate assistedliving and long-term-care facilities for the elderly and others.

The bulk of the fund’s assets (76%) are held in U.S....