• Austrian firms derive a substantial portion of their revenue from Eastern Europe
• Vienna has evolved into a hub for Eastern European commerce
• Economic growth in Eastern Europe is projected to continue to expand faster than most other regions. The region is expected to grow 4.5% in 2005.
• Eastern Europe is politically stable and growing at a substantial rate due to admission to the European Union.
• Composition of growth is well balanced, with domestic demand and exports both playing an important role.
• In Eastern Europe, an increasing number of companies are viewed as potential acquisition targets, which could have a positive impact on their stock performance.
• Inexpensive, highly educated work force
• Low corporate tax rates

EWO 200-Day Moving Average

The Big Charts one-year chart below shows iShares MSCI Austria ETF (the black line outlines the daily prices) and the 200-day moving average (the orange line highlights the trend line). As you can see, EWO is above the trend line, thus in an uptrend (and has been for the past year), indicating that it is a time to be invested in the ETF.

Returns

A common misconception about investing in global markets is that foreign markets cannot beat the U.S. markets. Below is a snapshot of how the iShares Austria ETF performed in 2004 and 2005 compared to the U.S. market indexes.

2004 2005*
EWO 73.1% 7.8%
S&P 500 9.0% 1.8%
Dow 3.1% (1.3)%

*through 7/29/05

Tags | Austria, Europe, EWO