Then the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that Australian home loans rose just 0.8% last month after rising 4.8%. Not only did the May reading miss estimates calling for a 2% increase, but the April number was revised lower from a 5.2% increase.
That could translate to further weakness for EWA as slumping real estate hits the ETF on two fronts: Its 50% weight to financials and an 18.5% allocation to materials names, which were already siege due to tepid Chinese data. EWA now resides more than 6% below its 200-day moving average, but investors willing to take a chance on a rebound will be compensated as the ETF had a 30-day SEC yield of nearly 3.7% as of April 30, according to iShares data.
iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this report.