Category Archives: stocks

Apple Car Will Look Like Egg On Wheels If Motor Trend Design Right

Apple ( AAPL ) has not revealed whether it is making an electric car, but rumors of the vehicle have imaginations firing. Motor Trend, one of the most respected car magazines, on Thursday published its own speculation about the Apple Car . For its deep dive into what the Apple Car would look like, it consulted auto industry experts and faculty at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. It produced illustrations for a possible Apple Car based on the company’s design ethos around simplicity and elegance as well as knowledge of where technology is headed. The artist’s conception of the Apple Car by Motor Trend shows an almost egg-shaped vehicle with a glass ceiling and light gold body lacking traditional features like door handles and rear-view mirrors. It sports double-wide gull wing doors and a Tron-like light bar that wraps around the car to provide turn signals and other indicators. As Motor Trend sees it, the Apple Car would be packed with artificial intelligence for autonomous driving and for accepting voice commands via Siri. It would recognize the driver from their Apple Watch or iPhone or biometrics. No keys would be required to start it. The centerpiece of the interior would be an augmented reality windshield on which important information would be projected, the magazine said. Cameras plus windshield or dashboard screens would replace rear-view mirrors, it said. “An augmented reality ‘windshield’ is among the most persistent Apple Car rumors and thought to be the likeliest part to survive if the rest of Project Titan is canceled,” Motor Trend said. The electric car could be charged from below using wireless induction charging so it wouldn’t need a power cord, the publication said. An estimated 1,000 people are believed to be working on an Apple car at a complex in Sunnyvale, Calif., under the name SixtyEight Research. Apple has been poaching engineers from Telsa Motors ( TSLA ) and other car companies. Apple is targeting a 2019 release for the car, according to media reports. The speculative Motor Trend report and artist’s conception of the Apple Car were widely mocked on social media. Many readers called the science-fiction pod design ugly.

After Hours: Apple App Store Changes, Valeant Mulls Options, BATS IPO

Apple ( AAPL ) has formed a secret team to mull changes to its App Store, including a paid search feature in which app developers would pay to have their apps displayed at the top of results, Bloomberg reported , citing sources. Apple already takes a 30% cut from app purchases bought via App Store. BATS Global Markets ( BATS ) priced its initial public offering of 13.3 million shares, raising $252.7 million. The expected range was 17-19. The stock exchange, which attempted to go public in a 2012 fiasco, will trade as BATS starting Friday. Valeant Pharmaceuticals ( VRX ) has hired investment banks to review its options amid interest from buyout firms and others for some assets, Reuters reported , citing sources. It’s further evidence that Valeant may need to sell significant assets to cover its heavy debt load. Shares rose 2% in late trading. Depomed ( DEPO ) scrapped plans to reincorporate in Delaware after Starboard Value launched a proxy fight to replace its board, in part to stop that move. Delaware gives companies more power to block shareholder activism. The drugmaker’s stock rose 2% late.

Smart Beta ETFs Not So Smart?

Smart beta ETFs that were on fire for quite some time now appear to be losing some momentum. Smart beta strategy helps to exploit market anomalies by adding extra selection criteria to the market cap or rules-based indices. These include among other strategies value – stocks trading cheap but performing better than stocks trading at a higher value, momentum – based on ongoing trend, dividend – stocks paying high dividend perform better in the long run and volatility – stable stocks perform better any day (read: How to Play the Choppy Market with Cheap Smart Beta ETFs ). In fact, the popularity of smart beta has soared to such a point, where a Create-Research survey has found that smart beta ETFs make up for around 18% of the U.S. ETF market. The U.S. markets are experiencing extreme volatility and the factors responsible for it are global growth concerns, escalating geopolitical tensions, a surge in the U.S. dollar and uncertainty over the timing of the next interest rate hike. Against this backdrop, investors look for smart stock-selection strategies to alleviate market risks. But nothing works forever, not even smart strategies. This is as true for smart beta ETFs as for market anomalies. Per a report by Research Affiliates’ analysts, one of the primary reasons why smart beta strategies have been performing well is because of their growing popularity, which led to higher valuations rather than structural alpha. The latter is the quality of the strategy and its potential to beat the benchmark on a sustainable and repeatable basis. This does not mean that one should reject smart beta ETFs altogether. If any inefficiency is spotted in the market, smart beta ETFs enable investors to exploit it at a cheap cost. However, it should be noted that not all smart beta ETFs have fulfilled their promise of delivering market-beating returns (read: Smart Beta ETFs That Stood Out Amid Market Volatility ). Below we have highlighted a few ‘Smart Beta’ options that underperformed the broader U.S. market ETF SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ), which has gained about 1.6% so far this year (as of March 30, 2016) First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF (NASDAQ: FV ) This ETF tracks the Dorsey Wright Focus Five Index, which provides targeted exposure to the five First Trust sector and industry-based ETFs that Dorsey, Wright & Associates (DWA) believes have the highest potential to outperform other ETFs in the selection universe. It is a popular ETF with AUM of $4.6 billion and trades in solid volumes of around 2.2 million shares a day on average. The fund charges a higher 89 bps in fees. The ETF has lost 8.2% in the year-to-date period (as of March 30). Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth ETF (NYSEARCA: RZG ) This fund tracks the S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth Index. The product has a wide exposure across 146 stocks with each holding less than 2% share while healthcare and financials are the top two sectors accounting for over 20% share each. The ETF has AUM of $192 million but trades in light volume of about 28,000 shares a day on average. It charges 35 bps in annual fees and fell 2.4% in the year-to-date period. SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus ETF (NYSEARCA: ONEO ) The fund tracks the Russell 1000 Momentum Focused Factor Index and holds a broad basket of 903 securities that are widely diversified with none holding more than 0.82% of assets. ONEO has accumulated $340.2 million in its asset base. It charges a lower fee of 20 bps per year and trades in solid volume of around 137,000 shares. The ETF fell 0.5% in the year-to-date period (read: 5 Very Successful ETF Launches of 2015 ). Original Post