Toyota’s (NYSE: TM) Lexus brand became the top luxury car brand in the U.S. in April, surpassing BMW and Mercedes, Bloomberg reported. That was just for one month, but it shows the weak yen is enabling Japanese automakers to slash prices on cars sold in the U.S. European automakers are having a hard time responding with the euro still stubbornly strong against the dollar.
As for EWG, the ETF is up 4.7% year-to-date. Showing that the weak yen really does make a difference, DXJ has surged 29%. Japan’s four largest automakers are all found among that ETF’s top-10 holdings.
iShares MSCI Germany ETF
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post. Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of DXJ.