Country-Specific

As pundits and analysts declare that China’s real estate driven economic expansion is part of a larger bubble, the fundamentals suggest a different picture. A look into China’s real estate shows that for most investors, there’s still money to be made. The Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate ETF (TAO: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), a popular [...]

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) [...]

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 [...]

WisdomTree will take nine of its most popular US listed funds across the border to list on Mexican stock exchanges. The move will allow the fund to tap into a growing investment class in Mexico and bring variety to a limited marketplace. WisdomTree’s move comes six years after iShares first moved its funds south of [...]

Planning for the future, Direxion has filed with the SEC to create 36 new funds. 34 of these will be bullish and bearish triple leveraged funds, all pending during the heat of a SEC review. Following the popularity of geographically centered ETFs, many of the new funds will be leveraged around a portfolio of stocks [...]

Although currency funds have yet to capture a large portion of the exchange-traded fund market, other opportunities exist for investors in the ETF landscape. One such opportunity, iShares MSCI Hong Kong (EWH: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), a stock fund, is expected to rise with China’s currency. Analysts expect that Chinese stocks catering to consumer [...]

While other fund sponsors are scouring the earth for obscure and often illiquid markets, IndexIQ reaches out to tap two domestic countries left untouched by most of the industry. IndexIQ launched two Canadian and Australian funds yesterday to excited investors. The newest funds are perhaps the most “plain vanilla” of any of IndexIQ’s interesting lineup. [...]

Often a leading indicator, shipping companies have outperformed the market in 2010, indicating that the economy is on a long road to recovery. Year-to-date, the Claymore/Delta Global Shipping ETF (SEA: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) has earned investors a hefty 14.8% return compared to 4.5% for the S&P 500. Demand for global shipping companies is [...]

ProShares has filed with the SEC to create five new leveraged or inverse funds, expanding the already largest lineup of leveraged products by any one issuer. The new funds tackle popular sectors such as China, bio-tech, basic materials and real estate. The five new funds are: 1. Short FTSE/Xinhua China (YXI) 2. Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology [...]

Troubles in Greece have only incited the popularity of exchange-traded commodities in the wake of what could be the largest bankruptcy since the credit crunch began. Often suffering from limited liquidity, currency funds are now on the up and up. The CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), which has an average volume [...]