Top Portfolio Products: Schroders, Oppenheimer Add Funds

New products and changes introduced over the last week include two mutual funds from Schroders and an emerging markets fund from OppenheimerFunds.

Also, NASDAQ OMX has launched a REIT benchmark-index family, and former Goldman Sachs trader Adam Grealish has launched a financial/tech job search service.

Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:

1) Schroders Adds Two Funds

Schroders has announced the launch of the Schroder Global Multi-Asset Income Fund (SGMNX) and the Schroder Global Strategic Bond Fund (SGBNX).

SGMNX is a diversified portfolio that seeks to maximize income and manage volatility by investing directly into both equities and fixed income securities around the globe. Its benchmark is unconstrained, which enables the team to be flexible in its search for the best risk-adjusted income opportunities across regions, asset classes and sectors.

SGBNX is an actively managed portfolio with the flexibility to invest in the best opportunities throughout the fixed income universe. It enables investors to invest tactically and strategically across the whole spectrum of global fixed income sectors, regions, asset classes and FX.

2) OppenheimerFunds Adds Emerging Markets Fund

OppenheimerFunds has announced the launch of the Oppenheimer Emerging Markets Innovators Fund (EMIAX). The fund will be comanaged by Justin Leverenz and Heidi Heikenfeld.

The fund, which is country- and sector-agnostic, seeks to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets Mid Cap Index on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis over a three- to five-year period on a cumulative basis. It will seek opportunities across the following structural growth themes: financial inclusion; logistics, distribution, e-commerce and modern retail; private education and health-care services; and internet media and content.

3) NASDAQ OMX Launches REIT Benchmark Index Family

NASDAQ OMX and ETRE Financial, LLC have announced a new partnership in the REIT benchmark index space, with the launch of 12 cobranded indexes.

The new indexes are: NASDAQ ETRE Composite REIT Index (NQETRE); NASDAQ ETRE Composite REIT Total Return Index (NQETRET); NASDAQ ETRE Healthcare REIT Index (NQETHC); NASDAQ ETRE Healthcare REIT Total Return Index (NQETHCT); NASDAQ ETRE Hospitality REIT Index (NQETH); NASDAQ ETRE Hospitality REIT Total Return Index (NQETHT); NASDAQ ETRE Office REIT Index (NQETO); NASDAQ ETRE Office REIT Total Return Index (NQETOT); NASDAQ ETRE Residential REIT Index (NQETRR); NASDAQ ETRE Residential REIT Total Return Index (NQETRRT); NASDAQ ETRE Retail REIT Index (NQETR); and NASDAQ ETRE Retail REIT Total Return Index (NQETRT).

4) Financial/Tech Job Search Service Launched

Adam Grealish, a former Goldman Sachs vice president, has launched RoleTroll.com, a job recommendation engine for finance and tech jobs. The site uses unstructured data and statistics, collectively known as big data, to match users with jobs based on their unique skills and experiences.

Roletroll uses technology that was previously applied in quantitative finance to identify profitable trades to identify profitable jobs. The site’s proprietary matching technology draws from the fields of optimization theory, natural language processing and machine learning to identify and score matches.

Read the June 20 Portfolio Products Roundup at ThinkAdvisor.

 

Why Dollar General Corporation, VeriSign, Inc., and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Are Today’s

The S&P 500 Index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) ended modestly higher on Friday, ending the week on a bullish note as the end of the second quarter approaches. Wall Street and Main Street alike are hoping that the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2014 will see higher growth than the first quarter, when the U.S. economy actually contracted at a 2.9% annualized rate. Dollar General (NYSE: DG  ) , VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN  ) , and DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) investors weren't too optimistic about growth today, as those three stocks ended as the worst performers in the entire S&P index. The S&P, for its part, tacked on three points, or 0.2%, to end at 1,960.

Dollar General lost 7.3% today after the company's Chairman and CEO, Richard W. Dreiling, surprised the stock market by announcing his retirement. Investors have plenty of reasons to like Dreiling, 60, who took control of the company at the beginning of 2008. Under his guidance, the dollar store went public in 2009, increased sales by more than 80%, and expanded its store count to more than 11,000 locations. The silver lining is that Dreiling could stay on at Dollar General for nearly another year -- until May 30, 2015 -- as the board searches for a successor.

VeriSign, which offers domain name registry, network intelligence, and other domain name-related services, shed 3.9% on Friday. A downgrade from Wells Fargo is behind today's drop, as the bank lowered its rating from outperform to market perform, noting that overall domain name registrations in the second quarter are trending lower than the company's midpoint expectations. Google's announced entry into the domain name market earlier this week also threatens to hurt VeriSign's business, especially if Google decides to offer domains at steep discounts, or even give them away for free.

DuPont is seeing farmers switch to soybeans as corn prices drop. Image Source: DuPont.

Finally, shares of chemicals giant DuPont slumped 3.3% today, giving the stock the ignominious distinction of being the Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst daily performer. The company warned investors late yesterday that it expects full-year 2014 earnings to come in between $4.00 and $4.10 per share, notably less than the $4.20 to $4.45 in per-share operating earnings it previously projected. In an industry that increasingly relies on genetically modified and patented seeds for a leg up on competition, DuPont is still subject to the whimsy of Mother Nature and Mr. Market, and challenging weather and falling corn prices combined to put the company in a tough position to grow substantially this year.

Leaked: Apple's next smart device (warning, it may shock you)
Apple recently recruited a secret-development "dream team" to guarantee its newest smart device was kept hidden from the public for as long as possible. But the secret is out, and some early viewers are claiming its everyday impact could trump the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In fact, ABI Research predicts 485 million of this type of device will be sold per year. But one small company makes Apple's gadget possible. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, and see Apple's newest smart gizmo, just click here!