Stock-focused ETFs still give investors an edge

Article Excerpt

Central banks around the world have rushed to help soften COVID-19’s blow to economic activity. In both the U.S. and Canada, the central banks has cut its policy rates to almost zero. That’s in addition to buying back various financial assets, including government and corporate bonds, to inject cash into the financial system. The U.S. Federal Reserve also allocated $850 billion to buy corporate debt on the open market. Initially, the effort was aimed at individual investment-grade corporate bonds, and ETFs holding these securities. However, that was later expanded to corporate bonds recently downgraded to junk bond status, as well as ETFs that invest in U.S. high-yield corporate bonds. The Bank of Canada announced in late March its intention to buy a minimum of $5 billion in bonds issued by the Government of Canada every week. It also plans to purchase up to $50 billion in provincial bonds, $10 billion in investment-grade corporate bonds as well as $500 million weekly in Canadian…