September 4, 2015

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND)

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) is an Intermediate-Term Bond ETF. The objective is to keep pace with U.S. bond market returns.

This bond fund utilizes its assets to purchase U.S. investment-grade bonds including US Treasuries, and corporate bonds. It offers relatively high potential for investment income. The total net assets are $26.48 billion. The 12-month yield is 2.47%. This top fund also has 0.07% annual expense ratio. The market price is currently traded at 0.03% discount of its NAV.

BND Fund Profile

    Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND)
  • Fund Inception Date: 04/03/2007
  • Ticker Symbol: BND
  • CUSIP: 921937835
  • Rank in category (YTD): 93% (YTD)
  • Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
  • Yield: 2.43%
  • Capital Gains: -
  • Expense Ratio: 0.05%
  • Total Assets: $ 33.82 billion
  • Annual Turnover Rate: 0%
Updated May 2017
Morningstar analysts rank this fund with 3-stars rating. The benchmark is Spliced Barclays US Aggregate float Adjusted Index.

September 2, 2015

Top Large Cap Stocks Mutual Funds 2015: YTD Performance

Find top large cap stocks mutual funds in 2015 based on its YTD performance. Find best funds for large growth, large blend, and large value mutual fund.

Equity Funds

Large cap stock funds are investing mainly in U.S. companies with big market capitalization, 10 billion or more of assets. Depending on the management style, the fund may invest in value stocks or growth stocks or mix of both stocks. They may provide some dividend yield for income.
Top Large Cap Stocks Mutual Funds 2015

From this best performing funds list, you may find each individual fund review. The fund is sorted based on its year to date returns (up to August 9, 2015). Whether it is for your brokerage account or retirement account or 401k plan, you need to find the right fund for your long term plan. You can find the fund performance, expense ratio, and yield or dividend from the table below.

Large Growth

Large-growth mutual funds invest in big U.S. companies or corporations that are projected to grow faster than other large-cap stocks.

September 1, 2015

Appliances Stocks

Appliance stocks are part of consumer goods stock market industry. Appliance companies manufacture, distribute, and sell appliances such as laundry appliances, refrigerators, and cooking appliances for household use. They also sell their products to other retailers or channels for resale under the retailers’ brand name (i.e. OEM).

These companies are generally structured as corporations. The stocks typically offer below-average dividend yields.

Appliances Companies List

If you buy appliances, you might know the brands. Some of the popular appliance brands are:
    Appliances Stocks
  • Sub zero & Wolf
  • Thermador
  • Whirlpool
  • Bosch
  • Electrolux
  • GE
  • KitchenAid
Appliances companies are:
  • Whirlpool Corp. (WHR)
  • iRobot Corporation (IRBT)

Top Performing Appliances Stocks in 2015

The following is the year-to-date return of these stocks in 2015. Some of these stocks are listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, etc. They may be part of international stocks listed in US stock exchange.

Top performing Appliances Stocks in 2015 (up to august 15, 2015) are:

Appliance stocks are part of consumer goods stock market industry. Appliance companies manufacture, distribute, and sell appliances such as laundry appliances

Appliances Stocks Table

No.CompanyTickerPerf YTDPerf WeekPerf MonthPerf Quart
1Whirlpool Corp.WHR-7.76%4.00%4.25%-5.65%
2iRobot CorporationIRBT-9.36%5.04%-1.47%-2.63%

August 31, 2015

T Rowe Price Overseas Stock Fund (TROSX)

T Rowe Price Overseas Stock Fund (TROSX) is a popular international stock mutual fund. It invests mainly in stocks of non-U.S companies. The fund objective is to provide capital growth.

This TRP fund utilizes its assets to purchase stocks of companies located in developed countries such as Germany, Spain, UK, Japan, etc. It may also invest in emerging markets around the world. Typically, the companies are considered as large cap companies. The fund manager is Raymond A. Mills.

This foreign large blend fund has $10.9 billion of assets. It has a decent dividend yield of 2.67%. The expense fee is only 0.84%. The current share price is $10.11. This T Rowe Price Overseas Stock fund has no sales load.

TROSX Fund Profile

    T Rowe Price Overseas Stock Fund (TROSX)
  • Fund Inception Date: 12/29/2006
  • Ticker Symbol: TROSX
  • CUSIP: 
  • Beta (3yr): 0.90
  • Rank in category (YTD): 47%
  • Category: Foreign Large Blend
  • Distribution Yield: 2.67%
  • Capital Gains: -
  • Expense Ratio: 0.84%
  • Net Assets: $ 10.9 billion
  • Number of Years Up: 5 years
  • Number of Years Down: 3 years

August 30, 2015

Leader Stocks Recover in 2015

Leader stocks recover from previous week big drop. During week 35, 2015, top stock market industries are oil & gas drilling & exploration, broad line semiconductor, etc.

Top Stock Industries

This post will look into the top performing stocks, industry, and sector. The S&P 500 index has a weekly return of 0.95%. NASDAQ Composite has a weekly return of 2.60%. Dow Jones Industrials Average has a weekly return of 1.17%. The small cap (Russell 2000) has a return of 0.56%.

Stock market highlights for week 35 are:
  • NYSE invokes Rule 48 to smooth out trading and ease volatility
  • Market Indices hold gains for week 35, 2015
  • Is China still slowing down?
  • Moody's reduces 2016 world expansion forecast to 2.8%
  • Research shows global GDP may be weaker than current data
Leader Stocks Recover in 2015
Top 25 stock industries in week 35, 2015 (August 24, 2015 to August 30, 2015) are:

No.NamePerf WeekPerf MonthPerf YTD
1Electronics Stores10.43%4.44%3.71%
2Internet Service Providers9.98%-13.57%-60.26%
3Semiconductor- Memory Chips8.71%-17.77%-50.50%
4Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration8.58%-8.99%-23.47%
5Basic Materials Wholesale7.92%-2.13%-0.27%
6Semiconductor - Broad Line7.57%-3.40%-9.22%
7Copper6.88%-4.20%-29.02%
8Electronic Equipment6.74%-7.20%4.11%
9Oil & Gas Equipment & Services6.56%-5.88%-13.15%
10Semiconductor - Specialized6.30%-4.35%1.99%
11Semiconductor - Integrated Circuits5.95%-9.33%-3.76%
12Cement5.67%-2.17%7.71%
13Industrial Electrical Equipment5.59%-15.16%-24.52%
14Aluminum5.50%-5.01%-36.29%
15Conglomerates5.31%-6.74%-15.14%
16Drug Delivery5.13%-7.99%53.63%
17Jewelry Stores4.82%-0.06%-9.07%
18Multimedia & Graphics Software4.74%0.16%28.36%
19Independent Oil & Gas4.60%-6.16%-22.91%
20Shipping4.57%-8.54%-12.93%
21Catalog & Mail Order Houses4.18%-3.45%46.55%
22Specialty Eateries4.11%-4.61%30.44%
23Industrial Metals & Minerals4.09%-3.71%-21.70%
24Textile - Apparel Footwear & Accessories4.07%-2.80%12.14%
25Semiconductor Equipment & Materials4.03%-6.52%-15.80%

Best Stocks Return

Looking into best weekly stocks can provide an insight what stock market will bring for the next session. Retail or institutional investors may want to rotate to this sector to avoid bad returns. Can growth stocks finally make the comeback? Will value stocks continue to be the winner? Some great sectors in 2015 are drug, health care, grocery, consumer, etc.

Top 20 oil & gas drilling & exploration stocks in 2015 are:

No.CompanyTickerPerf WeekPerf MonthPerf Year
1Vanguard Natural Resources, LLCVNR50.08%-19.02%-63.48%
2Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc.TRCH31.42%10.39%-62.71%
3Breitburn Energy Partners LPBBEP28.89%-10.66%-85.49%
4Pioneer Energy Services Corp.PES27.35%-17.89%-79.66%
5Northern Oil and Gas, Inc.NOG25.97%15.71%-65.17%
6Halcon Resources CorporationHK23.53%0.00%-81.05%
7North Atlantic Drilling LimitedNADL23.44%-22.55%-92.65%
8Hugoton Royalty TrustHGT21.37%9.36%-65.17%
9Cross Timbers Royalty TrustCRT20.04%2.15%-45.75%
10Pengrowth Energy CorporationPGH19.27%-19.20%-77.30%
11ECA Marcellus Trust IECT18.33%-6.49%-63.31%
12SeaDrill LimitedSDRL16.52%-15.42%-78.00%
13Ocean Rig UDW Inc.ORIG15.02%-15.33%-80.59%
14Ensco plcESV14.52%7.22%-62.30%
15EV Energy Partners LPEVEP14.19%-11.92%-77.02%
16W&T Offshore Inc.WTI14.18%-20.10%-77.69%
17Enerplus CorporationERF14.16%-6.00%-71.56%
18Samson Oil & Gas LimitedSSN14.04%-6.93%-83.75%
19Nabors Industries Ltd.NBR13.89%-3.47%-55.89%
20SandRidge Energy, Inc.SD13.33%-8.93%-90.27%
The 20 best oil & gas drilling & exploration stocks in 2015 are:

No.CompanyTickerPerf WeekPerf MonthPerf Year
1Atmel CorporationATML18.13%-2.49%-3.47%
2Avago Technologies LimitedAVGO14.51%-0.02%69.32%
3AU Optronics Corp.AUO12.96%-12.86%-38.63%
4NeoPhotonics CorporationNPTN11.90%-19.41%168.23%
5Qorvo, Inc.QRVO11.60%-7.76%-
6Integrated Device Technology, Inc.IDTI10.41%-1.45%16.54%
7FormFactor Inc.FORM8.83%-13.05%-4.95%
8Cypress Semiconductor CorporationCY8.73%-13.17%-3.95%
9Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.MXIM8.29%-0.01%13.37%
10NXP Semiconductors NVNXPI7.97%-11.38%29.53%
11ON Semiconductor Corp.ON7.63%-7.84%2.28%
12Intel CorporationINTC7.00%-0.88%-15.55%
13Inphi CorporationIPHI6.75%5.71%58.88%
14Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd.FSL6.65%-9.12%74.23%
15Kopin CorporationKOPN6.25%1.32%-24.44%
16STMicroelectronics NVSTM4.72%-5.67%-6.52%
17M/A-Com Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.MTSI4.44%-10.79%30.63%
18Texas Instruments Inc.TXN4.42%-4.48%2.59%
19Intersil CorporationISIL4.02%-5.07%-24.57%
20Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.AMD3.93%-4.15%-55.31%
Top stock issues are:
  • Indices are bouncing.
  • Oil is finally catching a bid.
  • Is China in trouble?

Other News

On Friday, a regulatory filing says Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has accumulated about 58 million shares, which amounts to more than 10% of the Phillips 66 (PSX), Houston company's stock.

Previously in late 2013, the Berkshire Hathaway agreed to trade about $1.4 billion of its Phillips 66 (PSX) stock for one of the refiner's businesses that makes additives to help crude oil flow through pipelines.

Many investors watch Berkshire Hathaway filings closely. They may try to copy Buffett's moves, given his successful record. Known as Oracle of Omaha, Buffett, has been running the company for more than 50 years, a period in which he has built a net worth of more than $70 billion. He has managed to push Berkshire's share price up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

August 28, 2015

Top 8 Mutual Funds for 2016 & 2017

Find top 8 mutual funds for 2016 & 2017. The best mutual funds are DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund, Vanguard Balanced Index fund, etc.

Best Mutual Funds

Not all mutual funds make good investments; you need to select the right funds. Based on my research and experience, I believe the following 8 mutual funds are good choice for your 2016 investment. Out of over 22,000 mutual funds that I have searched, I consider these 8 funds to be the best. You may wish to consider these mutual funds as part of a balanced investment portfolio.

You can find different categories of mutual funds such as bond, stock, and balanced fund. I also provide each fund review for your information. Other information such as expense ratio, yield, sector, category, fund performance, fund ranking, top holdings, and bond rating can be found below. All of these best mutual funds are no load mutual funds.

Top 8 Mutual Funds for 2016 & 2017The top 8 mutual funds for 2016 & 2017 are:
  1. DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund (DLTNX)
  2. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX) 
  3. USAA Tax Exempt Intermediate-Term (USATX)
  4. T. Rowe Price International Discovery Fund (PRIDX)
  5. DoubleLine Emerging Markets Fixed Income Fund (DLENX)
  6. Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index (VEIEX)

August 27, 2015

BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Fund (BTZ)

BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Fund (BTZ) is a popular bond closed end fund. This fund invests mainly in credit-related securities and securities with similar economic characteristics. The fund objective is to provide income with capital preservation.

This BlackRock fund is managed by Stephan Bassas, Jeffrey Cucunato, and Mitchel Garfin. It has a high yield of 7.83%. The fund sponsor is Blackrock Advisors. The current share price is $12.36. It has $2.37 billion of assets.

BTZ Fund Profile

    BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Fund (BTZ)
  • Fund Inception Date: 12/27/2006
  • Ticker Symbol: BTZ
  • CUSIP: 092508100
  • Rank in category (YTD): 12%
  • Category: Taxable Bond Fund
  • Distribution Rate: 7.83%
  • Effective Leverage: 32.45%
  • Capital Gains: -
  • Base Expense Ratio: 0.95%
  • Net Assets: $ 2.37 billion

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