Opportunity touted in drop in China’s Composite index
Chinese stocks have been in free-fall. From Oct. 16 through Thursday, the Shanghai Composite index has plunged 60 percent.
To Asia specialist Matthews Funds, the steep drop spells opportunity. It’s reopening two of its funds to new investors Sept. 2: Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund (MAPTX) and Matthews Asian Growth & Income (MACSX). They closed in 2006 and 2003, respectively, after torrid gains.
Both were launched in 1994. The first fund invests with an eye on long-term growth, while the second looks for stability through dividends.
Matthews executives said in a letter to shareholders that the market is challenging, but they see “a more favorable environment for long-term investment.”
Little interest in ETFs.
They got oodles of hype before their debut, but actively managed exchange-traded funds have attracted little interest from investors.
Most ETFs are index funds, which track the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and other bogeys. They trade through the day like stocks. The new ETFs, rolled out in March, such as PowerShares Active AlphaQ fund (PQY), have managers actively picking their holdings. Trading volume for the active ETFs has been low, says a report from State Street Global Advisors, averaging little more than 2,000 shares daily.
S&P Beige Book.
For evidence U.S. consumers are trading down in a tough economy, look no further than chief executives’ conference calls with analysts.
Just as the Federal Reserve pulls together anecdotal evidence about the economy region-by-region in its Beige Book survey, Goldman Sachs strategist David Kostin scours conference-call transcripts for insights into corporate America.
The No. 1 theme for the second quarter: Is the U.S. consumer under pressure? At Comcast Corp., chief operating officer Steve Burke said, “We also have some customers . . . that will call us up and say look, ‘I’m paying $120. I really need to get that number down to $90.’ ”
Olympic ads.
Quick, which brand do you associate with the Olympics? After the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies in Beijing, maybe it’s Exxon Mobil.
The oil giant ran two minutes and 30 seconds of commercials during the Games’ kick-off, making it NBC’s top advertiser. It broadcast two minutes of ads during the 2006 Winter Olympics opener, tying for No. 2.
Top advertisers
1. Exxon Mobil, 150 seconds
2. McDonalds, 120 seconds
3. Visa, 120 seconds
4. Coco-Cola, 90 seconds
5. Johnson & Johnson, 90 seconds
6. General Electric, 90 seconds
Source: Nielsen
