ETF News Archive

Emerging Market Sector ETFs Launch

Two new funds provide ETF investors with a way to gain exposure to emerging market sectors.

The EGS Emerging Markets Energy Fund (EEO) tracks an index of 30 of the largest emerging markets companies in the oil & gas industry across 13 countries.

Brazil Small-Cap ETF Premieres

A new small-cap ETF offers investors a way to gain exposure to Brazil while avoiding the giant commodities and materials companies.

The Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF) is the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to focus on Brazilian small-cap stocks.

Managed by Van Eck Global, the ETF tracks an index of stocks across several sectors of Brazil's economy including homebuilding and consumer goods.  Energy and materials make up 16 percent of the fund compared to over 50 percent for the typical Brazil fund.

See the ETF Directory for a complete listing of Van Eck Global ETFs.

ETF Assets Grow $49 Billion in April

ETF assets grew to $531 billion in April, up $49 billion or 10% according to State Street Global Advisors.

Underlying indices were mostly higher in April with the S&P 500 up 9.6%, MSCI EAFE up 13.0% and the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index up 0.5%.  The Barclays Capital U.S. Treasury Index fell 1.8% and gold was down 3.7%.

Domestic equity ETFs saw strong growth in small and mid-cap funds which were up 20%.  Financial, consumer discretionary, industrial and material sectors were all up more than 10% in April while health care and utilities were flat.

Another bright spot was real estate.  The Dow Jones REIT index rose 32% in April, helping the REIT ETF category grow $1.4 billion or 33.6% in April.

Emerging Currency ETF Launches

WisdomTree has introduced an ETF that provides exposure to money market rates in 11 emerging market countries.

The WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Currency Fund (CEW) gives investors a currency basket that includes the Mexican Peso, Brazilian Real, Chilean Peso, South African Rand, Polish Zloty, Israeli Shekel, Turkish New Lira, Chinese Yuan, South Korean Won, Taiwanese Dollar and Indian Rupee.

The new ETF was designed for investors interested in diversifying outside the U.S. Dollar or accessing a less correlated asset class.

See the ETF Directory for a complete listing of WisdomTree ETFs.

Invesco PowerShares Rationalizes Fund Line-Up

Invesco PowerShares is shutting down 19 of its 135 funds in a move to weed out ETFs that had failed to attract enough investor attention.

The impacted funds represent less than 1% of Invesco PowerShares total assets which totaled $25.8 billion at the end of March.

The final day of trading for the affected funds will be May 18.

The PowerShares funds to be closed include:

Dynamic Aggressive Growth Portfolio (PGZ)
Dynamic Asia Pacific Opportunities Portfolio (PUA)
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Posted: May  2, 2009 

Mortgage Finance ETF Begins Trading

State Street Global Advisors has launched an ETF that provides exposure to the mortgage finance industry.

The SPDR KBW Mortgage Finance ETF (KME) tracks an index maintained by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods of US stocks in the mortgage industry.

Sectors represented include pure mortgage players, mortgage processors, title insurers, homebuilders, and banks and thrifts where mortgage loans dominate the loan book.

See the ETF Directory for a complete listing of State Street ETFs.