Rolle im Portfolio
The PowerShares EQQQ ETF provides equity exposure to the 100 largest non-financial securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The ETF is best deployed as a core holding in a well diversified portfolio. Given the size of the US economy, the high correlation with international stock markets comes at no surprise; hence this fund’s benefits as diversifier within a broader equity allocation are limited. The index correlated 90% with the MSCI World Index and 80% with the STOXX Europe 600 Index over the last three years.
As the index is primarily invested in large caps, the ETF can be used to complement mid- and small-cap holdings within an existing portfolio.
Investors anticipating outperformance on the part of US equities, and the technology sector in particular, could utilise this ETF as a tactical tool to express their view. Furthermore, the ETF is suitable for investors preferring non-financial exposure in a well-diversified product, especially if the existing portfolio is already biased towards financials.
Fundamentale Analyse
The index that this ETF tracks is largely dominated by the IT sector; thus overall returns will be largely influenced by its performance.
In spite of some weak economic growth data, IT spending has remained relatively robust over the past few years. However, austerity measures pursued by governments around the world may ultimately weigh on overall IT spending going forward.
Morningstar’s equity analysts believe that large tech firms will put excess cash to work in 2012. Apple recently announced that it would initiate a quarterly dividend and buy back shares, while Dell and Cisco recently put cash to work via acquisition. In addition, mega-trends, like cloud computing and mobility will benefit the sector’s results over the years to come.
After a strong start into 2012, more recent data have clouded the outlook for the U.S. economy somewhat. The U.S. economy added only 120.000 jobs in March, half as many as the previous month and below market expectations. The new data suggests that the US labour market may not be as strong as originally indicated in January and February data, which may have been biased upwards due to unseasonably warm weather and aggressive seasonal adjustments. More recently, initial jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 380,000 at the beginning of April, the largest weekly rise in claims in nearly a year.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in March, well above the Fed’s target of 2%. Facing a still fragile recovery, e.g. high unemployment (8.2% in March), a weak housing market and unused factories, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last month said that additional quantitative easing may be needed. However, with inflation trending above the Fed’s target, this seems unlikely. Moreover, US’s fiscal situation is worse than it looks, according to William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The current low interest rates are serving to hold down debt-service cost and thereby distorting the country’s true debt problem.
Historically low interest rates in the US are not expected to tick up anytime soon as the Fed intends to maintain its current target rate until at least late 2014. Bernanke has stated that as long as there is no sustained period of stronger job creation, he cannot consider the recovery to be truly established. Meaning, despite some encouraging economic data, the job market is still too weak to risk a rate hike.
Nevertheless, Moody’s Analytics sees the US economy on track to grow 2.5% through the middle of next year and 4% by mid-2014, and it forecasts that the unemployment rate will drop to 7% by late 2013. Despite higher oil prices, the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe and uncertainty about US government spending, the report argues that these factors pose less risk to the economy than a few months ago.
Going forward, high unemployment and a weak housing market will continue to weigh on the US economy. Moreover, the presidential election in 2012 will likely result in political gridlock this year.
Indexkonstruktion
The NASDAQ 100 Index provides equity exposure to the 100 largest non-financial securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It is a market capitalisation weighted index representing major industry groups, like computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. The index is calculated under a modified capitalisation-weighted method with the intention to retain in general the economic attributes of capitalisation-weighting while providing enhanced diversification. In order to achieve its objective, the NASDAQ 100 Index is reviewed quarterly and adjusts the weightings of index constituents using a proprietary algorithm, if certain pre-established weight distribution requirements are not met. To be eligible for the index, component stocks must be listed on the Nasdaq Stock market and meet a list of criteria, like being a non-financial company, trading at least 200,000 shares a day and being listed on the stock market for at least three months. As of writing, the index is heavily biased towards the technology sector (60%), followed by health care (12%) and retail (10%). The largest index constituent is Apple, representing 12.2% of the index’s value, followed by Microsoft (8.5%) and Oracle (6.5%). The index is therefore heavily top weighted as the top 10 holdings represent about 50% of the index.
Fondskonstruktion
The PowerShares EQQQ Fund uses physical replication to track the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index. In order to achieve its objective, the index intends to invest in all of the component stocks of the reference index in their respective weightings. PowerShares may engage in securities lending to generate additional revenues. The lending revenue generated can partially offset the TER. To protect the fund from the counterparty risk that results from this practice, PowerShares takes collateral greater than the loan value. Collateral levels vary but must be in excess of 102%, depending on the assets provided by the borrower as collateral. The fund may hold up to 20% of its NAV in securities from a single issuer in order to achieve his objectives. Under exceptional market conditions, the fund manager may invest up to 35% of the fund’s net assets in securities from a single issuer. In addition, the fund may also hold up to 10% of its NAV in other collective investments schemes. The fund may also invest in financial derivative instruments, including equivalent cash-settled instruments, dealt in on a regulated market. Moreover, the fund can deploy over-the-counter derivatives and invest up to 20% of its NAV in shares and/or debt securities issued by the same body in order to achieve its objective.
Gebühren
The fund levies a total expense ratio of 0.30%. This lies at the middle of the range of ETFs tracking the NASDAQ-100 Index.
Alternativen
As of writing, there are five alternative ETFs tracking the NASDAQ 100 Index. The largest in terms of total assets under management is the iShares NASDAQ-100 (DE) Index. iShares uses full replication to track the performance of the reference index and levies a total expense ratio of 0.32%.
Investors looking for a more diversified index providing exposure to US equities could consider using the iShares S&P 500 Index ETF to express their view. The S&P 500 Index’s largest sector exposure is IT (20%), followed by financials (15%) and health care (11%). The biggest single issuer exposure is Apple (4.4%), followed by Exxon Mobil (3.2%)
Die in diesem Artikel enthaltenen Informationen dienen ausschließlich zu Bildungs- und Informationszwecken. Sie sind weder als Aufforderung noch als Anreiz zum Kauf oder Verkauf eines Wertpapiers oder Finanzinstruments zu verstehen. Die in diesem Artikel enthaltenen Informationen sollten nicht als alleinige Quelle für Anlageentscheidungen verwendet werden.
