Semiconductor ETFs, like the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEArca: SMH) and iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NasdaqGM: SOXX), also have significant exposure to INTC, which makes up 19.8% of SMH and 8.0% of SOXX. Additionally, the increasingly popular tech dividend ETF, First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index Fund (NasdaqGS: TDIV), holds large positions in these large and stable tech names, including INTC 8.0%, IBM 8.0% and HPQ 3.0%.
FX headwinds were “really the difference between growing pretax income and not growing pretax income in the fourth quarter for us,” CFO Martin J. Schroeter said. “Now, in this currency environment, and with the divestitures we’ve completed, our total revenue as reported will not grow in 2015.”
An appreciating U.S. dollar makes U.S. products relatively more expensive in overseas markets. Sales in foreign currencies will translate to a lower U.S. dollar-denominated return in a strong U.S. dollar, or weak overseas currency, environment.
Fueling the continued strength in the U.S. dollar, major central banks have been implementing loose monetary policies and enacting quantitative easing. For instance, all eyes were on the Eurozone as the European Central Bank contemplated a Federal Reserve-styled bond purchasing program.
“Policy diversion is driving this rally,” Win Thin, global head of emerging markets at Brown Brothers Harriman, said in the CNBC article. “The divergence is U.S. raising rates and the ECB, BOJ expected to do more easing, which typically weighs on a currency. Everyone’s very bullish on the dollar. The fundamental backdrop still favors the dollar.”
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