Readings: Commodities investing, Bankers rip-off schools, India Q2 earnings
- Zeal LLC: Commodities Investing
There are now dozens of commodities-centric ETFs to choose from. For instance if you are interested in base metals exposure have a look at PowerShares’ ETF that tracks the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index (LCI) focused on industrial metals (DBB-AMEX). DBB has strong exposure to copper, zinc, and aluminum.
There are also new and exciting agricultural ETFs. Another of PowerShares’ ETFs (DBA-AMEX) is designed to track the Deutsche Bank LCI composed of such liquid commodities futures contracts as corn, wheat, soy beans, and sugar.
You can also find ETFs that mirror such specific commodities as oil, natural gas, gold, and silver. And there are a number of broader ETFs that track such commodities baskets as a gold miner’s index, the energy complex, coal, and precious metals. And of course we can’t forget the ETFs that focus on such exotic commodities as timber, water, and nuclear energy.
Even broader is a brand new ETF that tracks the Continuous Commodity Index (GCC-AMEX).
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest bank in the U.S., made Barker an offer that seemed too good to be true . . . all they had to do was sign papers he said would benefit them if interest rates increased in the future, and the bank would give the district $750,000, . . .what JPMorgan Chase didn’t tell them . . . was that the bank would get more in fees than the school district would get in cash: $1 million.
In 15 Pennsylvania school districts, officials entered into interest-rate-swap deals worth $28 million since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of that dollar amount, the schools took in $15 million, and banks and advisers got the rest as fees . . .
Swap deals in Pennsylvania work out well for banks, advisers and lawyers who are paid for putting them together. Schools, parents and students see it differently.
And I thought the Enron/Worldcom guys were shameless.
- Hindu Business Line: India Inc earnings grow at slower pace in Dec quarter
Corporate India, for the second consecutive quarter, has reported a slower growth in both revenues as well as profits. On an average, companies notched up a 19% growth in profits on the back of a 19% growth in revenues for the quarter. The same quarter last year had seen a 56% growth in profits with a 30% rise in revenues.
‘Other income’ grew by a whopping 82% and contributed to 7% of the total income , compared to 4.7% last year.
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