What You Should Know:
- The ETF is managed by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK).
- EWG has an expense ratio of 0.53%.
- The fund has 63 total holdings.
- EWG is down 18.33% over the last month, 20.68% over the past three months and 12.56% year-to-date.
- Sector allocations include: Consumer Discretionary 18.20%, Financials 17.07%, Materials 16.33%, Industrials 14.92%, Health Care 10.65%, Utilities 7.39%, Info Tech 7.12%, Telecom Services 4.39%, Consumer Staples 3.53% and other 0.40%.
- “Single-country funds are useful for investors who want to tactically over- or underweight certain countries within their international holdings to reflect relative valuation, relative GDP, or relative growth outlooks,” according to Morningstar analyst Patricia Oey.
- Oey expects “Germany’s large-cap multinational companies to be well positioned to continue to benefit from strong growth in the emerging markets.”
- It should also be noted that “exports account for about a third of Germany’s GDP, and, currently, Germany is the world’s second-largest exporter after China.”
The Latest News
- Germany starts its parliamentary debate on its 2012 budget this week, Reuters reports.
- “Signs are increasing that German Chancellor Angela Merkel may have to risk her political career to make sure that Germany delivers on its commitment to expanding the euro zone’s bailout capacity,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel told members of her Christian Democrats that Greece will not receive aid payments due this month unless it meets conditions of the rescue, Bloomberg reported.
- The EWG ETF was the worst single-country ETF performer in August. The fund lost almost 20% on the Eurozone debt crisis and questions about the future of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. [Germany is Worst Country ETF in August]
- Second quarter growth registered slow 0.1% crawl, reports Brian Rohan for Reuters.
- Manufacturing activity grew at its slowest past in almost two years during August, with the PMI’s sub-index for new orders declining to 47.0.
- Private consumption dropped 0.7%, the first quarterly drop since the fourth of 2009.
- “We must get used to the idea of a weak second half. Germany is still dependent on exports,” comments Torge Middendorf at WestLB, in the report.
- After Chancellor Angela Merkel closed down eight of Germany’s nuclear power generators in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster, GDP data reveals that demand for power from abroad has contributed to an current account deficit in the second quarter.
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
iShares MSCI Germany
Max Chen contributed to this article.