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A $4 billion investment advisor based in Washington, D.C. recently announced the launch of a new suite of US Treasury ETFs that will make it easier for investors to access the US Treasury market. F/m Investments' new US Benchmark Series will allow investors to own each “Benchmark” US Treasury in a single-security ETF. Each fund will hold the most current US Treasury security that corresponds to its stated tenor. The initial three ETFs are the US Treasury 10 Year ETF (UTEN), the US Treasury 2 Year ETF (UTWO), and the US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF (TBIL). While Treasuries are very liquid securities, they can be hard to trade. This is especially true for investors who must roll them over frequently to maintain maturity. The new ETFs will hold each maturity's most current Treasuries.
Finsum: A new suite of single bond ETFs will provide investors access to a maturity’s most current treasury.
For investors with assets in active bond mutual funds, there has never really been a time to implement tax-loss harvesting. Tax-loss harvesting is the process of selling securities at a loss to offset capital gains tax due on the sale of other securities. Until this year, investors had mostly experienced gains in their fixed income holdings tracing back to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. However, due to significant losses in fixed income this year, an opportunity has arisen for investors to transition their assets to ETFs through tax-loss harvesting. According to Morningstar Direct data, US fixed income funds have seen more than $205 billion in redemptions during the first half of the year. Sales in taxable bond ETFs, on the other hand, while slowing, still generated $53.8 billion in net inflows during the same period. This has set the stage for tax-loss selling out of mutual funds and into ETFs.
Finsum: Losses in active bond funds this year sets the stage for tax-loss harvesting into fixed income ETFs.
Tech stocks are suffering and pushing the Hong Kong broad market index lower early this week. Companies like Alibaba and JD.com were driving this slump. Overall, economic data has been positive for China though. The latest report showed that dollar-based exports grew by almost 20% in July. The region as a whole is experiencing diverging patterns in equity performance as South Korea and China excluding Hong Kong both grew. Still with currency risk higher than usual as a direct result of Fed tightening and higher inflation emerging market investors are having a difficult time finding North in the current environment.
Finsum: If covid is starting to slow as a result of the climate it could be great for countries relying on trade.
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Research from Morningstar's annual Global Fund Flows found that actively managed fixed income funds saw $422 billion in outflows during the first half of the year. That figure accounted for 74% of all outflows from active portfolios. Active funds as a whole saw $568 billion in outflows, while index funds generated $432 billion in inflows. The net difference of $136 billion in outflows was the most since June to December of 2008, during the height of the Financial Crisis. The high percentage of active fixed income outflows is partly a result of the automatic rebalancing of model portfolios and target-date funds. Since equity returns have been more negative, automatic rebalancing has been triggering more trades to equity strategies to get allocations back in line. Passive fixed income funds saw $90 billion in inflows.
Finsum: Active fixed income funds accounted for 74% of all outflows from active portfolios during the first half of the year as automatic rebalancing favored equity strategies.
According to a paper published last month by Christopher Reilly of Boston College, corporate bond ETFs listed in the US, on average, pay 48 basis points a year in hidden costs that result from custom creation baskets. Since most fixed ETFs track thousands of individual bonds, custom creation baskets allow issuers and authorized participants to create a sample of the holdings which mirror the performance of the ETF. An authorized participant is an organization, typically a bank, that manages the creation and redemption of ETF shares in the primary market. Without sampling, the authorized participants would have to source every security. However, the custom ETF creation baskets allow authorized participants more flexibility to include securities that could significantly underperform the underlying index. This customization results in hidden costs that investors of ETFs could incur.
Finsum: Corporate bond ETFs are paying an average of 48 basis points a year in hidden costs resulting from customized creation baskets.
Sales of annuities are soaring with second-quarter sales projected to top $74 billion, according to life insurance industry-funded research firm LIMRA. That figure would top the previous record by more than $5 billion set during the financial crisis in 2008. Sales are being driven by fixed-rate deferred annuities, which offer investors a fixed interest rate on their money over a set period. Sales of fixed-rate deferred annuities are expected to come in between $25 billion and $30 billion, a 75% jump from the first quarter. Fixed-rate annuities are considered the safest annuity that investors can purchase since you can't lose the principal. The volatile market has led investors to seek the safety and guaranteed rates of annuities. Plus, with rates rising, investors can now earn even more.
Finsum: Annuity sales, especially sales of fixed-rate annuities, are expected to reach record levels, driven by rising rates and market volatility.