Today, the People’s Bank of China cut its key interest rate for the first time in almost two years to help support China’s economy. The People’s Bank of China lowered the rate at which it provides one-year loans to banks by 10 basis points. Not a huge move–100 basis points equals one percentage point–but earlier than many economists–and I–had anticipated.
In other years this would clearly be the time to jump into China stocks. What we have right now is a classic, tried-and-true set up for big gains from buying China stocks. With a “but” or two that suggests a cautious strategy. But I will be buying shares of Tencent Holdings and the FXI ETF on Monday, January 3.
Today on the market’s recalculation of the Federal Reserve’s schedule for interest rate increases–initial hike in June instead of September and two increases 2022 instead of one–I’m adding my allocation to the Invesco KBWB Bank ETF (KBWB) in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio to 30% from the prior 20%.
Even if mere mortals don’t know whether a second term as Fed chair for Jerome Powell would accelerate the schedule for interest rate increases, both the yen/dollar market and bank stocks know.
It’s tempting right now to say “To hell with diversification; let’s put everything into U.S. stocks. After all, they’re outperformed most asset classes for most of 2020 and for the year to date.” That’s exactly the kind of thinking, however, that gets an investor into trouble when an asset class is trading near a historic high. A time like this, like now, is exactly when you should be looking to make sure that you’ve got decent balance in your portfolio. And, to the degree you can, own stuff that will go up when other stuff goes down. Which is why I’m adding shares of the Van Eck Agribusiness ETF (MOO) to the Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio today
It’s the problem that won’t go away if you’re looking to build a diversified portfolio of ETFs (or any other asset) to manage the risk that some one asset class will implode unexpectedly. Given the continued outperformance of U.S. stocks, How do you diversify toe manage risk without giving up too much in current performance?
U.S. banks that pass their next stress tests will be allowed to raise their dividends after June 30, the Federal Reserve said today, March 25. The Fed will also lift any remaining restrictions on stock buybacks.
Yesterday in my YouTube video and in my latest addition to my Special Report: “Profit and Protect” I added the U.S. Copper Fund ETF (CPER) and the Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB) to my Perfect Five ETF Portfolio. In that portfolio they will replace the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) and the Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Bond ETF (VGIT), respectively. The two new ETFs will keep the portfolio weighting of the out-going ETFs at 25% and 20%, respectively. You can find more about the logic of these hedges and about the specifics of these ETFs in my video and in my Special Report update. Tomorrow I’ll also be adding the Invesco KBW Bank ETF to my Jubak Picks Portfolio.
A year ago, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note stood at 1.59%. From that point yields fell, leading to big gains for Treasuries and other bonds. Yields were down to 0.73% as of the week of April 15, 2020. And then hit their low for 2020 during the week of August 2 at 0.55%. Since then the story for long Treasuries has been just the reverse. By October 4, the yields on 10-year Treasuries were back ump to 0.78%. 0.83% by November 1. 0.93% on December 6. And then 1.16% today February 9. The forecast right now is that yields for long Treasuries aren’t done climbing either.
