U.S. small-cap exchange traded funds (ETFs) have yet to top their 2007 high, but they’ve easily outperformed blue-chip stocks over the past decade.
Benchmarks following the market’s biggest stocks have trailed small and midsize companies over the last 10 years, writes Jason Zweig this weekend in The Wall Street Journal.
Indeed, the iShares S&P 100 Index Fund (NYSEArca: OEF) posted a 10-year annualized return of 1.6% as of April 15, according to Morningstar.
The ETF’s tracking index is a subset of the largest and most established companies in the S&P 500.
iShares S&P 100
The iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca: IWM), an ETF tracking a popular index for small caps, gained 7.5% over the same period. Zweig wrote some of the outperformance is due to extremely low interest rates, and investor growth expectations.
iShares Russell 2000
Small and mid-cap stocks have also led the way over the past three years as the economy recovers from the credit crisis. Small-cap ETFs are trading just below their 2007 peak.
Still, an index of U.S. small-business optimism fell to fell to a five-month low in March, according to a report last week.
U.S. small-cap ETFs include iShares Russell 2000, Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: VB) and iShares S&P SmallCap 600 (NYSEArca: IJR).
Full disclosure: Tom Lydon’s clients own VB.