Just weeks after a devastating earthquake sparked a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, another natural disaster has hit the South American nation of Chile. Early Saturday morning, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake, the fifth strongest ever measured in the country, occurred off of Chile’s coast, causing massive destruction throughout the region. At least 100 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater have hit since the quake, complicating relief efforts significantly. The death toll has already topped 700, and is expected to rise as aid workers scramble to reach the areas hit hardest. “We’re facing an unthinkable catastrophe that will require an enormous effort in resources,” said Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in a televised address. [click to continue…]
The proliferation of commodity ETFs has brought this “fourth asset class” within reach of more investors than ever before. But as many have learned the hard way, resource fundamentals are only one of the factors that impact many exchange-traded commodities, and the nuances of the futures market often have a more significant impact than changes in spot prices. Most ETF investors looking for commodity exposure do so in one of two ways: 1) physically-backed or futures-based commodity products (such as GLD or DBC) or 2) equities of commodity producing companies. But some have embraced international funds as a way to achieve indirect commodity exposure while maintaining some degree of diversification in emerging economies. Below, we profile some alternative ETF options for investing in commodities (for more actionable ETF ideas, sign up for our free ETF newsletter). [click to continue…]
San Francisco-based iShares, which was acquired by BlackRock from Barclays last year, has more than 180 U.S.-listed ETFs. But the distribution of assets is far from even across these funds. At the end of 2009, the ten largest iShares ETFs–only about five percent of the issuer’s product line–accounted for 50% of total assets. So there’s [...]
The world’s largest ETF issuer has some grand plans to continue the spread of the ETF structure around the globe. San Francisco-based iShares plans to launch the first ETFs in Chile later this year, as well as add funds that track specific Brazilian industries as demand for exchange-traded products continues to grow around the globe. [...]
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece this morning seeking to shed some light on the true cost of ETF trading, speculating that many investors may be paying a lot more in expenses than they believe. While ETFs have become tremendously popular in part because of their low cost structure relative to traditional actively-managed mutual [...]
It’s been quite a week for the ETF industry. Last Friday, Van Eck launched its Market Vectors Vietnam ETF (VNM), the first exchange-traded product to offer U.S. investors exposure to Vietnamese equity markets. Now New York-based Global X Management Company has launched the Global X FTSE Nordic 30 ETF (GXF), the first U.S.-listed fund to [...]
It’s been quite a week for the folks at ETF Securities (ETFS), one of the preeminent ETF sponsors in Europe that recently made the long jump across the pond to enter into the U.S. market. Last Friday ETFS launched its Silver Trust (SIVR), a bullion-backed trust that is expected to compete directly with iShares’ SLV, [...]
Just weeks after iShares beat Global X to the launch of the first Peru-focused ETF, the country’s Finance Minister announced that the Lima Stock Exchange will begin listing global exchange-traded products to meet “huge” investor demand for international exposure. ETFs “are the future in markets,” said Luis Carranza. “It’s better to prepare for the future and [...]
Following the midnight coup of president Manuel Zelaya last week, the political situation in Honduras has become increasingly tense, forcing both neighboring nations and global powers to choose sides in the as-of-yet relatively bloodless conflict that is threatening to destabilize the region. The situation in Honduras has sent many Latin American ETFs reeling over the last week, [...]
Although last month’s news of a blockbuster deal between iShares and BlackRock dominated the headlines and was widely trumpeted as a “gamechanger” for the industry, the fund giant recently inked another deal that drew far less attention but may prove to be of far more long term importance for the ETF industry. Last week, iShares reached an [...]
Score one for Goliath. Three weeks after Global X announced that it would launch the first ETF investing exclusively in Peruvian equities, iShares beat its much smaller rival to the punch, launching the MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (EPU). EPU, which has an expense ratio of 0.63%, provides investors with an opportunity to invest in [...]
