With the global push toward cleaning up the environment, especially after the Paris U.N. Climate Change accord, the Market Vectors-Coal ETF (NYSEArca: KOL) has had a rough year, falling 54.9%. KOL follows the Market Vectors Global Coal Index, which includes global companies involved in coal operations, transportation of coal and the storage and trade of coal. [Coal ETF’s Descent Continues]
Along the same vein as the coal miners space, the broader SPDR Metals & Mining ETF (NYSEArca: XME) dropped 49.8% year-to-date. XME, which tracks a group of precious and industrial metals producers, has been under pressure as precious metals weakened ahead of the Federal Reserve tightening and global economies, notably China, slowed down. The Chinese slowdown may also explain the pullback in many base metals and related ETPs, including the iPath Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSEArca: JJN), which was down 48.5% this year.
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Max Chen contributed to this article.