Daily ETF Watch: 2 Teucrium Funds Close

Brattleboro, Vermont-based Tecrium Trading said last week that it was shutting down two of its futures-based commodity ETFs. The number brings the total announced closures for 2014 to 70, which is closing in on the 73 closures on the books for all of 2013.

The Teucrium WTI Crude Oil Fund (CRUD) and the Teucrium Natural Gas Fund (NAGS) both ceased trading after the close of business on Dec. 18, with cash distributions to remaining shareholders expected to occur around Dec. 30, according to Teucrium.

As with nearly every fund closure, the two Teucrium products simply had not accumulated meaningful assets under management. In the days before the closure announcement in November, the two funds had less than $2 million apiece.

PowerShares Launches Equal-Weighted Fund
On Wednesday, Dec. 23, PowerShares rolled out a fund that will compete with an offering from Guggenheim.

The PowerShares Russell 1000 Equal Weight Portfolio (EQAL) tracks an index that equal-weights both the sectors of the Russell 1000 index and the individual components within each sector, according to the prospectus.

The fund tracks the same index as the Guggenheim Russell 1000 Equal Weight ETF (EWRI | B-68), but comes with an expense ratio of 0.20 percent, 20 basis points less than the Guggenheim fund. EWRI launched in December 2010, and has accumulated roughly $94 million in assets under management.