Copper ETPs fell in the past week on a slowdown in commodity consumption in China.
The Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX | C-98) fell nearly 10 percent in the past week following news of slowing economic growth in China, the world’s largest copper consumer.
China’s copper imports fell to 380,000 metric tons in February from a record 536,483 tons a month earlier, according to Bloomberg, citing Chinese customs data. The yuan’s depreciation, weakening demand from end-users and rising domestic output of refined metal contributed to the decline.
The news helped push the First Trust ISE Global Copper (CU | D-71) and the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Total Return ETN (JJC | B-82) down 8.5 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.
Elsewhere, Russia-focused ETFs continued to drop as tensions between Russia and Ukraine ratcheted up. President Vladimir Putin deployed more troops and armored vehicles to at least three regions along Ukraine’s eastern border on Thursday, March 13, as a referendum on Crimea seceding from Ukraine looms.
The iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF (ERUS | C-92), the SPDR S&P Russia ETF (RBL | D-67) and the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX | C-64) were down 6.5 percent, 6.3 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.
Gainers
On the other end of the returns spectrum, the Teucrium wheat fund (WEAT | A) led all ETFs, with a gain of 5.8 percent, also due to escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The two countries, combined, will produce 74 million tons of wheat in the 2013-2014 marketing season and export a total of 26.5 million tons of the grain (representing 17 percent of world grain trade), according to Motley Fool.
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| WEAT | Teucrium Wheat | 5.77% | 405,512 | 13.66 |
| INXX | EGShares India Infrastructure | 5.69% | 42,047 | 15.93 |
| BAL | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return ETN | 4.20% | 81,742 | 25.22 |
| INDY | iShares India 50 | 4.18% | 860,479 | 467.26 |
| GREK | Global X FTSE Greece 20 | 3.75% | 1,964,549 | 240.00 |
| EPI | WisdomTree India Earnings | 3.73% | 22,578,471 | 868.15 |
| IDXJ | Market Vectors Indonesia Small Cap | 3.66% | 170,421 | 6.47 |
| CTNN | iPath Pure Beta Cotton ETN | 3.51% | 1,430 | 2.09 |
| INP | iPath MSCI India ETN | 3.11% | 237,461 | 349.36 |
| VNM | Market Vectors Vietnam | 3.01% | 1,400,422 | 507.08 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| COPX | Global X Copper Miners | -9.59% | 341,103 | 29.31 |
| CU | First Trust ISE Global Copper | -8.45% | 55,310 | 27.47 |
| JJC | iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Total Return ETN | -7.94% | 838,821 | 81.44 |
| CPER | United States Copper | -7.53% | 37,181 | 1.98 |
| ERUS | iShares MSCI Russia Capped | -6.53% | 3,238,688 | 204.68 |
| RBL | SPDR S&P Russia | -6.29% | 267,817 | 13.55 |
| RSX | Market Vectors Russia | -6.25% | 45,774,399 | 918.49 |
| RSXJ | Market Vectors Russia Small-Cap | -5.90% | 523,470 | 19.52 |
| ESR | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe | -5.63% | 105,650 | 128.97 |
| DBB | PowerShares DB Base Metals | -5.12% | 1,256,229 | 297.60 |
Disclaimer: All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
