David Mazza

Amid a spate of energy issuer defaults and downbeat performances by CCC-rated issues, tensions are running high in the U.S. junk bond market. Last year, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSE: HYG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bnd ETF (NYSE: JNK), the two largest junk bond...

The Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLE), the largest equity-based exchange-traded fund tracking the energy sector, was the worst performing of the nine legacy sector SPDR ETFs in each of the past two years. Fortunately for XLE, three weeks into 2016, the ETF is avoiding that ominous fate...

Global equity markets have stumbled to start 2016, placing a great premium on asset allocation for advisors and investors. Some exchange-traded funds aim to ameliorate the asset allocation issue, but are limited to doing so at the sector level. ETFs that have the ability to navigate investors...

The Federal Reserve finally did it. On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than nine years, setting the course for several more rate hikes in 2016 and perhaps taking rates as high as 1.25 percent by the end of the year. After the dust settled on the Fed...

Leading up to the Federal Reserve's December meeting, presumably when the Fed's first interest rate hike in nine years will take place, plenty of corners of the fixed income market have been punished. That includes bank loans or senior loans, a high-yielding fixed income asset class back...

With the Federal Reserve inching closer to raising interest rates, investors are increasingly scrutinizing sectors and industries for positive correlations and vulnerabilities to higher borrowing costs. On the surface, consumer discretionary stocks and the corresponding exchange-traded funds would...

The Federal Reserve passed on raising interest rates following its October meeting, but Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments before Congress earlier Wednesday indicate the Fed chief is mulling a boost to borrowing costs in December. How investors treat rate-sensitive stocks and...