The iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSEArca: IWM) is off 2% in the past week and that may be viewed as a sign that all bets are off for small-cap bulls. IWM has enjoyed some good times this year with a gain of about 11.5% and that may be enough for investors to say that the recent turbulence in U.S. equities is reason to leave small-caps for another day.
Not so fast. IWM offers plenty of exposure to cyclical rotation sectors with financials, consumer discretionary and technology combining for almost 53% of the ETF’s weight. Additionally, many small-cap companies are focused on their home market. With IWM, that means the U.S. and that means IWM is alluring as a strong dollar play. [ETFs That Benefit From a Rising Dollar]
Investors with a tolerance for risk have more small-cap ETF options than they may be aware of. In 2010, PowerShares, the fourth-largest U.S. ETF sponsor, rolled out a suite of small-cap ETFs to designed to be equivalents to the popular, large-cap focused sector SPDR funds. Some of these funds have been perking up in recent weeks and could be small-cap leaders if conservative sectors continue falling out of favor with investors. [Trading Smaller ETFs]
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio (NasdaqGS: PSCT)
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio is showing a divergence from large-cap technology and it is one investors might to take note of. In the past month, the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGS: QQQ) is slightly lower, but over the same time, PSCT has jumped 3.7%. That performance is also better than triple what IWM has offered over the same time. [Small and Micro-Cap ETFs]
The average market cap of PSCT’s 126 constituents is almost $1.3 billion, so investors can rest assured they are not dancing with ultra-volatile micro-cap fare with this ETF. Unheralded PSCT has almost $132 million in assets under management and despite its light average daily volume (19,400 share), the ETF rarely trades at a significant discount or premium to its net asset value.
PSCT offers exposure to hardware, software, Internet and semiconductor names, among others.
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary Portfolio (NasdaqGS: PSCD)
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary Portfolio joins PSCT as another small-cap ETF for investors looking to exploit the cyclical rotation. And like its technology-focused counterpart, PSCD outperformed a major large-cap equivalent and IWM over the past month. While the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLY) lost ground over that time, PSCD gained 2.6%. In fact, PSCD has been the better over the past 90 days and year-to-date as the ETF is up almost 18%.
And as is the case with PSCT, PSCD offers a lineup that is not chock full of obscure, risky micro-caps. PSCD’s 106-stock lineup is actually littered with companies consumers are intimately familiar with including Buffalo Wild Wings (NasdaqGM: BWLD), Coinstar (NasdaqGM: CSTR) and Crocs (NasdaqGM: CROX).
The risk to PSCD is obvious: Any noticeable retrenchment in the quality of consumer-related economic data could make this ETF vulnerable to selling pressure. A drop below support at $38 could do the same.
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this article.