ETF Spotlight on Market Vectors Global Agribusiness (NYSEArca: MOO), part of a weekly series.
Assets: $1.4 billion
Objective: Seeks to track the DAXglobal Agribusiness Index and gives exposure to companies that get at least 50% of their revenue from the agriculture business.
Holdings: Among the top holdings in the fund include Potash Corp (NYSE: POT, 8%), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS, 8%) and Monsanto (NYSE: MON, 8%)
What You Should Know
- The fund’s 45 securities are most heavily weighted in large- and small-cap agriculture companies. 41% of the fund is large-caps, 40% of the fund is mid-caps.
- The sub-sector breakdown is agricultural chemicals, 46.4%; agriproduct operations, 30%; agricultural equipment, 11.9%; livestock operations, 9.2%; and ethanol/biodiesel, 2.5%.
- The United States is the heaviest weighting with 59% of the companies in the fund domiciled here. Singapore (12.6%), Switzerland (7.2%), Malaysia (5.8%) and Norway (3.6%) round out the top five.
- If you’re not comfortable with funds that hold futures contracts because they generate K-1s, funds like MOO that hold companies are an appealing alternative.
- Research everything about MOO easily by going to our ETF Analyzer!
The Latest News
- Food security remains a major issue, writes Richard Barely for The Wall Street Journal. Prices for basic crops spiked before the financial crisis, which triggered riots in some countries, and millions around the world are still undernourished.
- If countries like China and other developing countries switch to more meat consumption, grain production would have to keep up to feed livestock and better technology would have to be implemented to boost crop yield.
- Biofuel production will reduce the land available for food crops.
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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.