“Perhaps I'm seeing a conspiracy where there is none,” a reader writes, “but with the proposed new tax treatment of ETFs, I wonder, who gains? 

“The fact is, ETFs generally charge much lower fees than mutual funds, and ETFs by their structure have better tax advantages than mutual funds as well. Who could dream up a plan to make one of the major advantages of ETFs just go away overnight? 

“Could this be the behind-the-scenes product of the mutual fund industry that has gorged itself on charging outrageous fees for substandard investment options?  Suspicious, no?”

Now that you mention it, yes, it is suspicious. And it wouldn’t be all that surprising if industry lobbyists -- on both sides of the ETF tax proposal -- are courting Congress.

Drug, oil and gas, and tobacco companies as well as private equity firms including Blackstone Inc. are all bending the ears of congress members, hoping to carve out the Dems’ $3.5 trillion bill.

We’ll stay on top of the story…

Send your opinions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Your Rundown for Wednesday, September 29, 2021...

“Metaverse” 

“Wow! How wonderful,” says another reader. “Now the common, non-professional investor must know the best stocks and sectors. And knowing which sectors to invest in seems to be a moving target.

“If you are right, and the ETF is going to be dragged down with taxes, that’s one more thing making it more difficult for retail investors.”

True… So, for guidance today, we turn to our science and technology authority Ray Blanco who is enthusiastic about “metaverse” stocks.

“The metaverse economic transformation will affect work spaces and social media; entertainment will be disrupted too, and things we haven’t even imagined yet will emerge,” Ray says.

“Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are a subset of the metaverse phenomenon,” he continues. “Market data company Statista forecasts that the augmented- and virtual-reality market will swell to nearly $300 billion in 2024, a near tenfold increase over this year.

“Naturally, there will be plenty of investment opportunities surrounding the metaverse. It certainly takes plenty of legwork to get this technology off the ground and to market.

“Companies like Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) are already heavily invested into the metaverse space. As well as computer chip manufacturers like Nvidia (NVDA).

“Even glass manufacturers will play a part in the metaverse ecosystem. Advanced glass lenses will be needed for the headsets used to access the metaverse.”

“Be on the lookout for more Metaverse updates,” says Ray, “we’ll be covering them extensively.”

Market Rundown for Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021

The S&P 500 is up 25 points to 4,377.

Oil’s down 0.46% -- a few cents away from $75 a barrel.

Gold is stuck at $1,738.10 per ounce.

Bitcoin is up 1.5% at the time of writing to $42,205.

Send your comments and questions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Hard to believe it’s Wednesday already. We’ll catch up in a couple days…

For The Rundown,

Aaron Gentzler
Editor, The Rundown
TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com