Austria and its related exchange traded fund (ETF) have received a couple doses of good news recently: unemployment is down, industry is up.
Austrian utility company Verbund won a concession to build a $259 million hydropower plant in Albania, Reuters reports.
The decision was based on the cheaper prices of power delivered to the Albanian system and market, installed capacity, technicalities and social standards when building the plant. iShares MSCI Austria (EWO) holds 4.8% of Verbund.
Meanwhile, unemployment has shrunken and has fallen for the 29th month to 4.1% in July, according to Forbes. Jobless claims dropped to 9,269 on the year to 178,664, with open positions retreating 8.2% to 39,521. Within the European Union, Austria ties for fourth place with Estonia and Luxembourg, says Eurostat.
My family and I had the pleasure of visiting Austria a few weeks ago, and we saw a country that’s beautiful and booming. Austria has been especially benefiting from its banking expansion into Eastern Europe. However, EWO could almost be viewed as an emerging market fund, in that when things are good, they’re great; when they’re bad, they’re awful.
The second-largest holding, OMV, has become central Europe’s biggest oil and gas supplier, and its modern filling stations in Bulgaria have actually played host to weddings.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.