An exchange traded fund indexed to German stocks was down 6% in U.S. premarket trading Tuesday after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a referendum on the bailout.
The iShares MSCI Germany (NYSEArca: EWG) fell 6% before the bell amid reports of anger in Germany over the Greek vote.
The announcement came “out of the blue, it’s surprising, very risky,” Norbert Barthle, the ranking member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party on parliament’s budget committee, told Bloomberg. “There’s an enormous amount at stake. Do we know how the Greek people will treat their government in this referendum? No. We have a new unknown.”
European stock ETFs listed in the U.S. were set to open deep in the red Tuesday. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 fell 3%, France’s CAC 40 lost 4.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 5.6%.
In currency ETFs, CurrencyShares Euro Trust (NYSEArca: FXE) declined 1.1% in Tuesday’s premarket.
iShares MSCI Germany
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