The bashing in copper ETFs Monday highlighted investor concerns over the global economy and the debt situation in Europe. ETFs that invest in copper futures and miner stocks lost more than 3% amid the selling. The $200 million iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper ETN (NYSEArca: JJC) was down more than 3%, as were First Trust ISE Global Copper (NasdaqGM: CU) and Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSEArca: COPX). Sector bellwether Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was off 3%. Copper prices are seen as a leading indicator of the global economy because the commodity is widely used in building and industry. [Copper ETFs Crushed Along with Freeport, Miner Stocks]
An ETF tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index was down nearly 2% in Monday’s sell-off as concerns over Eurozone debt stalked U.S. equities. Top holdings Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT) and Intel (NasdaqGS: INTC) both slipped more than 1%. Technically, PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) has been struggling at a key level as it tries to retrace losses going all the way to the dot-com bust. The Nasdaq-100 ETF was up 6.2% year to date through May 20, according to investment researcher Morningstar. [Nasdaq ETF Down More Than Market as Microsoft, Intel Hit]
The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX), which tracks futures contracts on Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” rallied nearly 4% Monday morning as the exchange traded note saw heavy volume of more than 5 million shares in the first half-hour of trading. The VIX-futures ETN jumped as stocks fell with concerns over Europe’s sovereign-debt woes triggering the global sell-off. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) was down more than 1% while the Dow slipped about 131 points. [VIX ETFs Rally on Europe Debt Worries]
Gregory A. Clay contributed to this article.