ETFs started February on a down note, with most equities slumping to finish the week. The euro sank to a new eight-month low against the dollar as sovereign debt concerns, specifically from Greece, continue to hang over the economic bloc. Meanwhile in the U.S., the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.7% despite losing 20,000 jobs in January. Below, we offer our picks for the week’s most important and interesting ETF stories from around the Web: [click to continue…]
Barclays Global Investors is planning to develop and introduce an iShares Genocide-Free ETF, offering an alternative to investors who are uneasy about holding securities of companies associated with genocide. According to a press release, the company plans to partner with an index provider to identify and screen out companies around the world that they believe are strongly connected to genocide. “We believe there is investor interest in genocide-free investing and that belief was reinforced through recent conversations with Investors Against Genocide, among others,” said Noel Archard, head of iShares product research and development. “As a result, we intend to develop an extension of our iShares socially responsible ETF offering with an iShares genocide-free ETF.” [click to continue…]
Among the 30 new exchange-traded products Deutsche Bank plans to launch through its db x-trackers unit in 2009 is a proposed fund that would track the S&P Carbon Efficient Index, a benchmark based on the performance of large-cap U.S. companies with relatively low carbon emissions while seeking to replicate the return of the S&P 500. “This [...]
In April, FaithShares Advisors filed with the SEC to launch a line of ETFs targeted at religions investors. While “socially responsible ETFs” (such as KLD) and clean energy ETFs (such as PBW) are nothing new, FaithShares proposed to narrow the scope of socially responsible investing significantly by offering funds focusing on specific denominations, including:
As the ETF industry has exploded and investors have poured cash from traditional mutual funds into these investments, a number of interesting ETFs have popped up attempting to establish market share. One interesting sector consists of socially responsible ETFs, which generally invest in companies with positive and ethical environmental and social policies. These funds will often avoid companies [...]
