Investors have been moving away from the Mexico exchange traded fund as poor economic fundamentals and cyclical weakness continue to weigh on growth.
The iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWW) saw $184.1 million in outflows over the past month, according to ETF.com data. EWW has declined 4.2% over the past month and dropped 11.3% year-to-date. The ETF is now hovering 9.9% below its 200-day exponential moving average.
In the past two months, Mexico’s macroeconomic data has disappointed investors, with poor employment and manufacturing surveys, along with stress on the capital structure of Mexican banks and overall financial instability, writes Invest Up, an investment research provider, for Seeking Alpha. [Mexico ETF is a Mess]
Consequently, private consumption is under pressure. Moreover, the rising cost of living is about to outpace the benefits of the previous monetary easing.
The current round of sell-offs in EWW have been fueled by investors’ skittishness toward Latin America as a whole. Additionally, hedge fund redemptions and margin calls exacerbated outflows from Mexican assets.
So far this year, the negatives factors have been overshadowing the positives. Mexico initiated political and energy sector reforms last year and is expected to post GDP growth superior to that of the U.S. this year. Mexico is also a major silver producers and EWW has a 17.6% weight to the materials sector, but the ETF has received no benefit from rising silver prices. [South of the Border Slump: Mexico ETF Continues Slide]