Global X announced today the launch of the first pure play Argentina ETF, bringing to market another option for accessing South America. The Global X FTSE Argentina 20 ETF (ARGT) will seek to replicate the FTSE Argentina 20 Index, a benchmark that includes the top 20 companies within the investable universe of Argentina-domiciled companies or companies that have substantial revenues or assets in Argentina. “ARGT provides a relatively cost effective way to access the second largest economy in South America, a glaring hole in the existing ETF offerings,” said Bruno del Ama, chief executive officer of Global X Funds. [click to continue…]
Last year, the U.S. hit the bottom of one of the worst recessions in its history. Though the year started out on a sour note–stocks plunged for the first two months of 2009–markets finally bottomed out in early March, and then began a furious rally that saw many asset classes reclaim some of the ground [...]
Over the last several years the economic growth gap between the world’s emerging and developed markets has gradually widened, as the U.S. and Western Europe face mounting debt balances and rising unemployment while the BRIC countries continue to expand at an impressive clip. This discrepancy has prompted a fundamental shift in the asset allocation process [...]
What was supposed to be a quiet summer in the steel industry has turned out to be rather eventful. With most analysts expecting prices to remain weak for the remainder of 2010, steel has shown signs of rallying in recent weeks as global supplies have eased and another showdown with China appears to have been [...]
As equity markets have surged in recent weeks, investors have grown increasingly bullish on the manufacturing and construction sectors of the economy. With strong readings out of the Chicago PMI and solid car sales, the immediate future is beginning to look bright for steel companies as the important commodity becomes more in demand. However, a slow [...]
What seemed to be a stable market recovery has encountered some turbulence in recent weeks, as lingering uncertainty in the euro zone has rippled throughout the global economy. Recent market volatility–the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) has posted a remarkable gain of 45.4% over the past month–has caused a variety of responses [...]
It’s difficult to put a finger on the exact cause of the recent surge in popularity of commodity investing. More than likely, the boom is attributable to a number of different factors. Correlation between international equity markets (and even between stocks and bonds) has surged in recent years, increasing both the importance and difficulty of [...]
March 9, 2009 is a date etched into the memories of many investors. After months of unprecedented volatility, depressing statistical releases, and countless false bottoms, that’s the day most equity markets finally hit their lows. It also marked the beginning of an impressive rally that saw most major indexes climb steadily for the remainder of [...]
With interest rates still hovering just above zero and growing concerns over an unavoidable uptick in inflation, many investors are anticipating that the Federal Reserve will have no choice but to raise rates from their historically low levels in the near future. Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Fed, recently unveiled a strategy to unwind [...]
After a record-breaking 2009, the ETF industry is off to a fast start in 2010, as the first week of the year has already seen a handful of new fund launches. After a holiday slowdown, trading activity picked up this week as well, and key data releases were carefully analyzed. Below, we offer our picks [...]
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China continue to mount, with the most recent dispute focusing on the damage done to the domestic steel industry by cheap overseas imports. The U.S. International Trade Commission announced that duties of between 10% and 16% will be imposed on future imports of steel pipes. One day earlier, the [...]
