Trading volume has been absolutely off the wall in recent weeks in iShares EMU Index (NYSEArca: EZU), which is a fund designed to provide exposure to European Monetary Union country members.
The ETF typically averages about 903,000 shares per day but in recent weeks it has traded as much as 6+ million shares in one session, as well as registering several 1+ million share days.
Clearly, with Europe in the daily market headlines for the better or the worse, this fund has caught a bid recently based on a collectively more optimistic future outlook on Europe’s economic conditions on the whole. EZU is trading at its highest levels since March, and is up an impressive 12.90% now YTD.
However, in the trailing 5 year period the fund has experienced a bloodbath, falling 44.74%.
Currently, top country weightings in EZU are as follows: France (32.05%), Germany (29.68%), Spain (9.65%), Netherlands (9.47%), and Italy (7.94%).