Market data and academic studies have established that quality companies perform better than the overall market over long periods. The risk involved in investing in these companies is also lower than the broad market.


Defining quality has common threads


TSI has developed a 10-point checklist of factors that define high-quality, attractive companies....

The share prices of U.S. and Canadian utilities companies in general have not performed well over the past decade, lagging the broad market indexes. Reasons for this weaker performance include slow growth in electricity demand for power producers, as well as high interest rates that have hurt utilities overall.


However, several factors are now driving projections that U.S....

This month we discuss two new ETFs that aim to use derivative instruments to target specific investment outcomes. The BMO U.S. Equity Buffer ETF promises upside potential along with limited downside protection against U.S. market declines. The Harvest Industrial Leaders Income ETF plans to supplement the dividend income of a portfolio of U.S....

The Chinese real estate sector has been struggling since 2021. That’s when the authorities introduced measures to curb debt levels at large real estate development companies. Since then, more than 50 Chinese property developers have defaulted on their international debts....

The Chinese economy expanded rapidly between 2000 and 2019 when annual growth averaged a high 9%. It has recovered from the pandemic, but its growth trajectory going forward is uncertain. That’s because of factors like the trade war with the U.S. and other Western countries (including a ban on AI chip exports to China), as well as a major property sector downturn....

By the end of May 2024, ETF assets listed in the U.S. were valued at $9.0 trillion—that’s after the addition of $356 billion in new assets in the first five months of 2024.


Most ETF money in the U.S. market is invested in stocks (77%), followed by fixed-income funds (18%).


Within the stocks component, the money mainly goes into U.S....

One of the best methods of building wealth over time is to zero in on the shares of companies (or the ETFs that hold them) with sound fundamental value. That includes a history of consistently strong sales and earnings, or cash flow. A solid balance sheet and a strong hold on a growing clientele are also pluses.


Here are three ETFs that aim to select high-quality companies with solid value: One ETF focuses on well-established U.S....

VANGUARD TOTAL WORLD STOCK ETF $115.87 (New York symbol VT; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Conservative; Market cap: $49.3 billion) tracks the FTSE Global All-Cap Index. U.S. companies make up the largest component of the portfolio (58.7%), then Japan (6.1%), the U.K....

VANECK VECTORS SOCIAL SENTIMENT ETF $22.00 (New York symbol BUZZ) follows the BUZZ NextGen AI US Sentiment Leaders Index. This index tracks the 75 large-cap U.S. stocks showing what it sees as the highest degree of “positive investor sentiment.”


The ETF aims to analyze millions of investment-related messages and posts on sites like Reddit, Stocktwits, Twitter using what it believes is sophisticated computer software....

High interest rates boost bond yields—and their appeal with investors. Conversely, those high or rising rates can hurt the appeal of high-yield utilities, and their shares, since utilities are then forced to pay higher interest on their debt. However, with interest rates falling in Canada, and poised to fall in the U.S., the outlook for high-quality utilities is attractive for investors seeking high dividend yields and growth prospects.


Below we discuss two utilities ETFs....