ETF Spotlight on iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Sector (NYSEArca: IYF), part of a weekly series.

Assets: $616.7 million

Holdings: IYF holds some of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

Objective: IYF tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Financials index.

What You Should Know

• 41.4% of the fund  in banks; 26.9% is in financial services; 13.1% is in non-life insurance; 11.8% is in real estate investment trusts
• The fund as a 0.48% expense ratio
• There are 258 holdings in the ETF
• Since the market’s low on March 9, IYF is up 121%

The Latest News

• Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) reported that its profit jumped 61%, but its loan losses also jumped to more than $5 billion. Wells Fargo is simply getting in line with other big banks, which have also reported big losses from loans gone bad, reports the Associated Press.
• Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) beat analysts’ expectations by reporting consolidated net revenues of $8.7 billion. The profit ends a three-quarter losing streak, and it can be attributed to Morgan Stanley’s new conservative stance in the wake of the financial collapse, Reuters reports.
• JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) set a high bar for earnings, but Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) failed to reach it when they announced their third-quarter results this morning. Goldman Sachs reported $3.19 billion in trading profits that beat expectations, but the stock dropped on declines in investment banking revenues. Citigroup reported a smaller loss than expected, but credit losses are high, report Sara Lepro and Tim Paradis for the Associated Press.
• The rally may not be indefinite, since banks still have their share of problems. But there’s still opportunity there, since financial ETFs are still about 50% off their 2007 highs. (Play the capital markets recovery).

For past ETF Spotlights, visit our ETF Spotlight category.

Tags: ETF 101, ETF Spotlight, Financial, IYF, Sector ETFs