Good Morning! A Vietnam ETF Is In Registration

There seems to be great interest in a Vietnam exchange traded fund (ETF), if the search engines are any indication. Week after week, "Vietnam" turns up as one of our top ten search words.

Market Vectors has gotten in line to meet the demand, it seems. Last week, the ETF provider filed for five new ETFs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and one of them includes a Vietnam fund, reports the Euromoney Institutional Investor Online Network. The fund will seek to replicate the Vietnam index, which is made up of companies with market capitalizations greater than $200 million. Most of the companies in the fund are headquartered in Vietnam, or generate a majority of their revenue there.

Vietnam has been experiencing steady growth in recent times, although there has been a surge in inflation. But for the last three years, the economy has grown by more than 8%, reports Duncan Currie for the Daily Standard. Economic reforms were put in place in 1986, and since then, millions of the country's inhabitants have emerged from poverty. The country also has a wealth of natural resources, including coal and offshore oil and gas deposits - that's pure gold in these days of high energy prices.

The other ETF filings include:

• Market Vectors Global Frontier: Tracks the Global Frontier Index, which holds companies with market caps greater than $100 million.
• Market Vectors Gulf States: Tracks the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) Index, which comprises companies with market caps greater than $100 million.
• Market Vectors Africa: Tracks the Africa Index which holds companies with market caps of more than $200 million. The companies are either headquartered there or make most of their revenue on the continent.
• Market Vectors Emerging Europe: Tracks the Emerging Europe & Commonwealth of Independent States (EE & CIS). The companies have a market cap of greater than $1090 million, and among the countries that will be seen in the funds are Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary.

Individual Investors Seem to Gravitate to ETFs

The stock rating system on the Motley Fool is slowly seeing exchange traded funds (ETFs) making up the top ten. And now, six of the top ten stocks are actually ETFs.

Before we proceed, CAPS is the Motley Fool's rating system where investors work together and pool all their information to help you identify which stocks are the best to buy and when, along with which stocks to avoid.

Players rate stocks and predict which will under perform or outperform all the while The Fool keeps score and rates them. In turn, players receive ratings and based on the performance of their picks. The system is updated every five minutes, so the news is all current.

Todd Wenning for The Motley Fool gives us the top six ETFs as of May 13th, and reminds us that these are not formal recommendations, just start-ups to further your own research. In respective order:

• iShares MSCI Canada Index (EWC), up 6.7% year-to-date
• iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (EWT), up 10% year-to-date
• iShares MSCI South Africa Index (EWA), up 6.7% year-to-date
• SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa (GAF), up 1.5% year-to-date
• iShares MSCI Sweden Index (EWD), up 5.5% year-to-date
• PowerShares Global Water (PIO), down 6% year-to-date

It only underscores the popularity that ETFs have acquired with individual investors.

Wenning points out that some of the individual stocks in the ETF will outperform the ETF, but that's the trouble: how do you choose which stock to go after? Hindsight is 20/20. By investing in ETFs, you remove picking and choosing from the equation.

For the month of April, we had ETF industry growth. Will it keep up?

Middle East Is the New Frontier for ETF Providers

The Middle East is the latest hot spot for exchange traded fund (ETF) investors.

WisdomTree has filed for a Middle East Dividend Fund, which includes exposure to Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Jordon, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Although the prospectus does not list the weightings, Roger Nusbaum for Seeking Alpha says he found that 54% of the market caps are greater than $2 billion.

Frontier markets are the next category that will offer investors opportunity, and the Middle East is ripe for the taking. PowerShares also has a frontier fund in the making, so it is time that we see more of these funds coming to market.

Other ETFs that currently offer exposure to this area of the globe:

• iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund (EIS), up 7.6% since March 28 inception
• iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index Fund (TUR), up 4.5% since April 1 inception
• SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa (GAF), down 1.3% year-to-date

Israel Emerges As A Strong ETF Industry Leader

Tucked away in the heart of the Jewish country is Tali 25, an exchange traded fund (ETF) that is already 8 years old. It was Israel's first fund to market.

Since then, the Israel ETF industry has grown considerably, with a ratio of ETFs to mutual funds of 25%. The ratio in the U.S. is 15%, reports Sarit Menaham for Haaretz.

The most notable aspect of  the Israeli ETF market is the number of ETFs in various indexes.  In the United States and other countries, or or a few ETF providers may have exclusivity over an index. This abundance is great for local investors as it creates competition, and has providers striving to be the best.

American investors seeking to invest in this market can do so with the iShaers MSCI Israel Cap Invest Mkt Index (EIS). This ETF launched on March 28, and is up 10.1% since.

The economy is growing at 5% for the fifth consecutive year, with high-tech companies leading the way. Voice mail technology and other innovations actually have their roots in Israel, who has more listings on NASDAQ than any country aside from the United States and Canada, reports Abraham Rabinovich for The Australian News.

Socialism is a thing of the past, however, the gap between the rich and the poor is one of the deepest among developed nations. Investment in the land of one of the oldest civilizations could prove fruitful for American investors today.

Steel ETF Is Getting Hot to the Touch

Describing something as "steely" is usually a synonym for "coldness," but not when it comes to the steel exchange traded fund (ETF).

Market Vectors Steel (SLX), which launched in October 2006, is at record highs thanks primarily to booming global demand for the metal. Year-to-date, it's up 19.6%.

In the Middle East, the steel industry is said to be undergoing a transformation. It currently accounts for only 2% of the global steel trade, AME Info reports. In 2006, the region produced 21.1 million tons of raw steel and consumed 41.6 million tons of finished goods. Those numbers are respectively forecast to rise to 35 million and 60 million tons by 2010.

In China, the number of steel factories has doubled in the last few years. Even on our home turf, steel demand is up about 30% ahead of its supply.

A View of ETFs In An Obama White House

If Barack Obama were to win the election for presidency this November, what would happen to the investment world, particularly exchange traded fund (ETF) investors?

Awhile back, we talked about funds that could benefit in a McCain win, as well as an overall Democratic win.

Jonathon Bernstein for ETFZone believes that the most immediate and powerful impact of an Obama win would be the within the area of foreign policy. He could help to ease tensions with the Middle East and Venezuela, which would in turn calm oil prices and shift the overall momentum of the markets. Currently, oil is at all-time highs, so just the thought of Obama in the White House would send oil lower in funds such as Unites States Oil (USO).

The dollar might end up in a stronger state, as a major reason the dollar fell against the euro is oil imports. If the United States were to import less oil, or or pay less for the oil it does import, we might see an improved trade deficit, thus upping the demand for U.S. dollars. CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE) would reflect the dollar-euro ratio.

Obama says he would keep tax cuts for the middle class, and doesn't support Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. Both those and his dividend tax cut expire in 2010. Dividend-focused ETFs such as iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY) or the State Street SPDR Dividend (SDY) could be vulnerable if the tax cuts aren't renewed.

Obama also supports working to put an end to global warming and a push to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. He also supports ending the ban on stem cell research.  Both iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) and the WildersharesClean Energy (PBW) could experience positive movement if these issues are addressed.

Exxon Earnings Put the Brakes on Energy ETFs

Some energy exchange traded funds (ETFs) are down more than 4% in midday trading after Exxon Mobil (XOM) reported a first-quarter profit jump that was less than what Wall Street was expecting.

You can't blame Wall Street for expecting more, considering the price of a barrel of oil these days. Even though Exxon's 17% profit jump to $10.9 billion was the second largest U.S. quarterly profit ever, it still wasn't enough.

Analysts were expecting $2.13 per share, but instead got $2.03 a share, reports John Porretto for the Associated Press. Exxon posted the largest quarterly profit in history for a U.S. company at the end of 2007.

Exxon's shares were down nearly 5% midday, weighing down some of the energy ETFs that count the company as a major component:

• iShares Dow Jones US Energy (IYE): Exxon is 23.1%; up 4.4% year-to-date
• Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE): Exxon is 18.5%; up 3.3% year-to-date
• iShares S&P Global Energy (IXC): Exxon is 15.8%; up 2.9% year-to-date

Also, if you were thinking of moving out of the country in order to escape those high gas prices - not so fast. Of 155 countries surveyed, it turns out the United States is the 45th cheapest, says Steve Hargreaves for CNN Money.

Next time you drive by the pump and sob at $4 gas, think about how people in other countries must feel: in Europe, the average is more than $8 a gallon; in Aruba, it's $12.03 and in Sierra Leone it's $18.42.

If you're really itching to move, consider Venezuela, where it's 12 cents a gallon. Or Saudi Arabia at 45 cents.

But the numbers don't take some things into account: the falling value of the dollar, the differing salaries in countries and so on.

In Europe, the trade-off for the gas prices is cheaper health care and higher education, which is paid for partly through gas taxes. Europe also sports a better public transportation system.

PowerShares Registers for Frontier Countries ETF

The possible choices for exchange traded fund (ETF) investors interested in the Middle East/Africa region continues to grow.

On Monday, Invesco PowerShares registered to launch a new ETF that would focus on companies domiciled in 10 Middle Eastern and North African countries, reports Jeffrey Ptak for Morningstar.
 

The index is not yet named and the ETF is pending. But it will be called the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio. Around 50 companies will be part of the underlying index and a majority of the assets will be in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

This puts PowerShares in a race with Claymore for an ETF tracking frontier markets. The Claymore/BNY Frontier Select DR Index Fund would track an index of 26 companies from a universe of 40 frontier markets.

When they launch, the ETFs will join the SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East and Africa (GAF). The fund is allocated primarily in South Africa, at 55.3%. It also has weightings in Israel (21.4%), Morocco (7.1%), Egypt (5.7%) and Jordan (3.6%). Year-to-date, the fund is down 2.3%.

iShares last month also gave more Middle East exposure to investors with the launch of the iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund (EIS).