Heading into 2011, many observers of the ETF industry were warning that this year could see a wave of fund closures, as ETFs that were failing to generate positive cash flow for the institutions behind them could be shuttered. That wave of contraction has yet to really play out, as only a handful of ETFs have closed their doors and returned investor money in 2011. FaithShares, the firm behind a lineup of faith-based products, pulled the plug a few months ago and opted to reorganize as a turnkey ETF company. Javelin shut down its contrarian ETF after failing to gain traction, and a handful of other companies have made similar moves. [click to continue…]
The past couple of weeks have been very rough for many sectors of the economy as worries over Europe and a slow economy in the U.S. are plaguing a number of companies. This is no more true than in the commodity space, as firms that produce everything from oil to crops are feeling the pinch of a global slowdown [...]
The month of May was a generally disappointing stretch for investors, as both international and domestic equity markets struggled to overcome obstacles new and old. Commodities, which had been a nice source of absolute returns for much of the last year, fell on hard times as well; precious metals went into a brief freefall, and [...]
Global X, the New York-based ETF behind a number of funds offering exposure to various subsets of the global food industry, announced the latest expansion to its product lineup today with the launch of the Global X Farming ETF (BARN). The product marks the 34th fund in total from the company and follows on the [...]
Global X notched another ETF industry first on Thursday, debuting a fund that focuses on companies globally that are engaged in some aspect of the fertilizer industry. The Global X Fertilizers/Potash ETF (SOIL) seeks to replicate the Solactive Global Fertilizers/Potash Index, a benchmark that includes about 29 companies from both developed and emerging markets.
Stock markets have broadly come back so far in 2011, as optimism over growth in emerging nations and some portions of the developed world has outweighed geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and a nuclear disaster in Japan. While a number of sectors have led this charge higher, undoubtedly one of the most important is [...]
Global X, the New York City-based ETF issuer known for its various country and sector-specific products, continues to be active on the product development front; the firm recently filed details with the SEC for two new niche ETFs. The filing was light on details such as tickers or expenses, but did shed some light on [...]
IndexIQ, the ETF issuer best known for its lineup of hedge fund replication and county-specific small cap ETFs, announced the launch of a new fund today targeting an increasingly popular and relevant corner of the global equity market. The Global Agribusiness Small Cap ETF (CROP) will track the IQ Global Agribusiness Small Cap Index, a [...]
The relatively peaceful revolution that has played out in Egypt over the last several weeks has come across to the developed world as a push for democracy in a country that has floundered under the nearly three decades long rule of a president determined to hold on to power. While frustration with what was effectively [...]
Commodities have been in the limelight for much of 2010, as prices have surged all across the board. Perhaps the most notable commodity movement is that of gold, which is currently trading near the $1,400/ounce mark, as the yellow metal broke all-time highs while skyrocketing in the latter half of the year. But aside from [...]
It’s baaaaaaaack. After a brief hiatus that saw investors rushing to determine the best ways to battle deflation, inflationary concerns have begun to surface again. The cause of the latest bout of inflationary anxiety is of course the QE2 program recently announced by the Federal Reserve that calls for the purchase of hundreds of billions [...]
