Energy

United States Commodity funds, the ETF sponsor best known for its United States Oil Fund (USO: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) and United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), today launched another fund to track Brent oil prices. The new fund, the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO), will track the [...]

Through structured products, exchange-traded funds are earning another use by the banking industry. Normally centered on popular indexes, structured products can better track returns with exchange-traded funds. Two banks, Bank of America and Credit Suisse, both issued notes this week using exchange-traded funds as their underlying indexes. Bank of America launched a two-year leveraged note [...]

Some sectors are seasonal, and a few fare better in the summer than any other time during the year. Here is a brief list of the ETFs that heat up as summer begins. With oil on the top of everyone’s mind following a spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Claymore/Aphashares Global Solar Energy Index ETF [...]

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 [...]

United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) has been staying out of the spotlight since it traded at a double-digit premium last year. However, big players in the option market are ready to bring UNG back from the dead. According to Schaeffer’s Research, the United States Natural Gas Fund has breached [...]

The World Cup trophy isn’t made of platinum, but gold. However, the World Cup games are still expected to crimp the flowing supply of platinum. The World Cup, which will be held in South Africa, is expected to drain the country of much of its electrical power supply. South African mining operations, which produce much [...]

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) [...]

Considered one of the most boring industries, utilities are emerging as one of the most interesting for the dividend investor. With the chance of capital gains and yields that beat treasuries, investors should give a second glance to utility ETFs. One utility ETF, the Utilities Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund (XLU: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, [...]

Rydex will close 12 of its leverage exchange-traded funds, saying farewell to an industry largely locked down by larger issuers Direxion and ProShares. The closures follow its acquisition by Guggenheim Capital. The twelve funds to be closed are: 1. Rydex 2X Russell 2000 (RRY) 2. Rydex Inverse 2X Russell 2000 (RMM) 3. Rydex 2X S&P [...]

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 [...]