Around the world, stock markets have been very rocky as of late with investors fearing a return to a recession in many developed countries. This fear has compounded with weak earnings out of many large banks and tempered growth predictions for mainland China to reduce expectations for one of the main drivers of growth in the emerging world. The government has stepped in to cool down the red-hot Chinese economy in order to avoid inflationary pressures but still keep the economy growing at an acceptable rate. This has forced China to end a variety of stimulus programs and forcing banks to cut down on their lending. Chinese banks issued 36 billion yuan less in loans for the month of June and the government has set a target of 7.5 trillion yuan in loans for the year, a 22% decrease from 2009 levels. Due to this sharp cut in available loans, it looks likely that many Chinese sectors will not be able to grow as quickly as they have been in previous quarters as growth looks likely to fall back below the 10% mark for the next quarter. [click to continue…]
Alternative energy remains a fast growing market segment not only in the world of ETFs, but in terms of total investment as well. Since 2005, investment in clean energy increased by 230% to $162 billion in 2009. Echoing similar trends occurring throughout the global economy, emerging markets have stepped up their push to become leaders [...]
With concrete steps towards a globally-supported climate change initiative finally materializing, many investors have been considering the addition of a “green energy ETF” to their portfolios, speculating that mandates to reduce emissions will funnel investment dollars towards alternative energy technologies. Wind and solar power ETFs have seen significant cash inflows and jumps in price over [...]
