European stocks and the corresponding U.S.-listed exchange traded funds have been under significant pressure in recent weeks as global investors have fretted about the strength of the Eurozone’s economic recovery.
That has not prevented some issuers from testing the waters with new, dedicated Eurozone exchange traded funds. Earlier this week, First Trust, the sixth-largest U.S. issuer of exchange traded funds, introduced the First Trust Eurozone AlphaDEX ETF (NasdaqGM: FEUZ), the issuer’s first offering geared specifically toward Eurozone-based companies. [First Trust to Launch New ETFs]
Illinois-based First Trust has already enjoyed Europe ETF success with the First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund (NYSEArca: FEP) and theFirst Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund (NYSEArca: FDD).
FEUZ joins First Trust’s popular lineup of AlphaDEX ETFs, a group of funds that have been instrumental in the issuer’s rise to among the largest in the U.S. Translation: FEUZ’s underlying index evaluates stocks on “growth factors including 3-, 6- and 12- month price appreciation, sales to price and one year sales growth, and separately on value factors including book value to price, cash flow to price and return on assets. All stocks are ranked on the sum of ranks for the growth factors and, separately, all stocks are ranked on the sum of ranks for the value factors. A stock must have data for all growth and/or value factors to receive a rank for that style,” according to First Trust.