Barclays Global Investors

This week Taiwan and China will be finalizing a major economic pact that will significantly enhance trade between the two countries. As a result, ETFs that track these two markets are projected to reap the benefits. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which is scheduled to be finalized on Tuesday, will most notably reduce tariffs on [...]

China will be providing more exposure to its currency and ETFs related to the country have responded quite favorably in the US. The Chinese yuan will now trade more freely against the U.S. dollar, according to MarketWatch. The news gave a lift to Chinese-specific ETFs. Two notable ETFs started out the week on the right [...]

iShares today launched the iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund (EPOL) on the NYSE Arca Exchange. The first exchange-traded fund to track Polish stocks, the iShares fund was met with plenty of anticipation prior to launch. The fund follows several other iShares’ developments meant to track stocks of individual nations. The iShares MSCI Poland [...]

ETSpreads, a small ETF sponsor based in San Francisco, filed with the SEC to add a TIPS bond fund on top of its already growing list of exotic ETFs. ETSpreads has yet to release a single ETF for public consumption, but some of its funds are already grabbing headlines. In the SEC filing, ETSpreads sought [...]

Thanks to the growing competition in the retail space, most long term investors can now balance their portfolios with exchange-traded funds for free. Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab are all competing for investors’ dollars, and investors are the benefactor. One of the best deals for investors is Fidelity’s offer for free trades on several iShares [...]

Alongside the popular Build America Bond ETF by PowerShares, State Street has launched another similar exchange-traded fund. The State Street fund offers little difference against PowerShares’ ETF, even adopting the same (.35%) annual expense as its PowerShares rival. State Street’s fund is designed to track a new category of municipal debt subsidized in part by [...]

While mutual funds have been a staple of the retirement planning community, exchange-traded funds are beginning to earn their fair share. Industry analysts contend the new wave of growth will be in the form of hybrid ETFs, with active management like a mutual fund, coupled with the benefits of exchange-traded funds. Following the crash of [...]

Blackrock’s iShares has announced the launch of three new exchange-traded funds catering to specific geographic regions. Its newest funds center on Ireland, Indonesia and the United States. The three new funds are as follows: 1. iShares MSCI Ireland Capped Investable Market Index Fund (EIRL: Quote) 2. iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index Fund (EIDO: Quote) [...]

The biggest losers among the record sell-off on May 6th weren’t individual stocks, but exchange-traded funds. As the markets tumbled, institutional volume in ETFs sent many funds to abnormal lows. Both the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges released a list to the public of securities that saw cancelled trades. A total of 173 securities on the [...]

Cumulative investments in China via exchange-traded funds are growing incredibly bearish. New data suggests investors are betting against what is the most resilient economy in the months following the credit crisis. According to Bloomberg, short selling in the iShares FTSE/Xinhua 50 China Index ETF (FXI: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) has grown to 39% of [...]