American Century Investments recently launched its newest active ETF, the American Century Short Duration Strategic Income ETF (SDSI). The fund, which now trades on the NASDAQ, will seek to generate attractive yield by investing across multiple fixed-income market segments that maintain a short-duration focus. The fund invests in both investment-grade and high-yield, non-money market debt securities. This could include corporate bonds and notes, government securities, and securities backed by mortgages or other assets. SDSI is a transparent active ETF with an expense ratio of 0.32%. The fund management team includes Jason Greenblath, Charles Tan, Jeffrey Houston, CFA, and Peter Van Gelderen. Ed Rosenberg, American Century's head of ETFs, noted that "SDSI expands our existing Short Duration Strategic Income capabilities to an actively managed ETF. The Short Duration Strategic Income ETF seeks to complement an investor's core bond holdings with high current income, broad diversification, and the potential to mitigate the impact of rising rates."

Finsum: American Century continues to build up its active ETF lineup with the addition of the American Century Short Duration Strategic Income ETF.

With yields rising as the Fed pursues its hawkish monetary policy, investors are piling billions into ETFs that track both the short- and long-term treasury market. For example, $13 billion has been added to the SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) this year, a product that now offers some of the most attractive yields in over a decade, while having very little interest-rate risk. On the other end of the yield curve, investors have flooded a similar amount into the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), which has experienced historic losses due to the Fed’s rate hikes. TLT has seen more new inflows than any other fixed-income ETF this year. However, the reasons for these inflows likely differ between the two. Investors seeking yield can now find that in a short-term treasury ETF like BIL, while investors that believe the Fed will slow down rate hikes, or even cut rates in the future, will benefit from the high duration that a long-term bond ETF such as TLT could provide. The steep losses in the market this year have also driven defensive investors into cash-like instruments such as BIL.

Finsum:Investors looking for yield and safety are piling into short treasury ETFs, while investors seeking high duration are flooding into long-term bond ETFs.

Whirl. Wind. Of late, ESGs has been in the middle of the swirl, according to Canada.constructionconnect.com. In light of the trio of culprits: the growth of inflation and interest rates, not to mention the invasion of Ukraine – all of which are reverberating across the entire world, it probably hardly rates as breaking news that climate change isn’t exactly dominating headlines. 

Still, though, construction project designers, owners and builders must keep their noses to the proverbial grindstone. That means developing strong Environmental Social Governance policies and making sure that embedded in the corporate culture are verification, compliance and reporting.

At the same time, it’s also important to address the “Social” and “Governance” portions, Conor Chill of MLT Aikins in Calgary told the Daily Commercial News.

When it comes down to it, ESGs are one more manifestation of the globalist movement, according to protecttheharvest.com.

“‘Stakeholder capitalism,’ a model I first proposed a half-century ago, positions private corporations as trustees of society, and is clearly the best response to today’s social and environmental challenges,” World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab wrote in 2019. “We should seize this moment to ensure that stakeholder capitalism remains the new dominant model."

Small-cap stocks appear to be having their moment this year outperforming their large-cap peers. The S&P 600 small-cap index is currently on pace to outperform the S&P 500 for the first time since 2016. One reason for their outperformance is a strong U.S. dollar. This is due to the negative effect that a strong dollar has on the profits of multinational companies. A strong dollar harms U.S. companies that sell goods overseas by making them less affordable. Smaller companies, on the other hand, are more insulated from adverse currency effects as most of their business is done stateside. For instance, companies in the S&P 600 index generate only 20% of their revenue outside the U.S, while companies in the S&P 500 generate 40% of their sales abroad. This had led to some of the largest companies in the U.S warning of currency risks in their latest earnings calls. In addition to a strong dollar, small caps are also benefitting from better valuations. According to FactSet, the S&P 600 is trading at 10.8 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, which is well below the S&P 500’s forward price/earnings ratio of 15.3.

Finsum: Small-cap stocks are outperforming large-cap stocks this year due to a strong U.S. dollar and more attractive valuations.

See the badge, mister? Shiny, huh? Smudges? Please.

Yep; the sheriff’s in town. At the recent 2022 PLANADVISER National Conference, the ongoing enforcement of the Regulation Best Interest package was a hot topic among SEC speakers, according to -planadvisder.com. The package now is fully enforced. But the subject had plenty of company; other SEC regulatory efforts -- including proposed regulations concerning money market funds, ESG investments and cybersecurity – also were addressed.

The SEC’s updated interpretation of the fiduciary duty as prescribed by the Investment Advisers Act was in total effect as well.

Now, when the law speaks, of course, listening up’s highly recommended. Here, for instance: upon passing a recommendation to a retail customer, brokerage professionals are required to act in a retail customer’s best interest. Putting their own financial or other interest ahead of the retail customer’s interests? Yep: a no no for those professionals.

For more than the past year, Reg. Bi and Form CRS compliance have been in the crosshairs of FINRA and the SEC. That included the maiden SEC Reg. Bi settlement, which occurred in June, according to goodwinlaw.com.