Van Eck Global launched an ETF that provides exposure to publicly traded mortgage REITs this week. The Market Vectors Mortgage REIT Income ETF (MORT) tracks an index of 25 REITs in the commercial and/or residential markets.
While stocks have been flat with increasing volatility, a strong performer over the past couple of quarters has been a bet against the US dollar. With uncertainty in Europe holding back the Euro, a better declining dollar play has been the Swiss Franc.
Last week’s swoon in the equity markets was accompanied by another strong performance by gold. The last peak for stocks was on July 7 when the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) closed above $135. Since then, stocks are down over 11%.
As the US continues to wrestle with fiscal policy and the EU debt crisis remains unresolved, investors have been returning to gold to ride out the uncertainty.
While stocks have faded back to January levels, real estate investment trusts or REITs are still up for the year. The Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) is up over 5% in 2011 while the performance of the S&P 500 has been nearly flat.
What’s doing worse than the overall stock market? Try financials. Since the beginning of 2011, the S&P 500 is flat having given up the year’s gains in the recent 6-week downturn.
After a dramatic 8 week run-up in silver prices, the bubble burst last week on a sudden strengthening of the dollar. Since March 1, the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) gained nearly 40% before rapidly returning to early March levels in less than a week.
Rising oil prices can only be good news for the demand for drilling and other services that support the exploration for new energy sources. That fact is reflected in higher stock prices for oil services companies which have outperformed the broader market in recent months.
A new fixed-income ETF that tracks an index of floating rate securities was launched this week by Van Eck Global. The Market Vectors Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF (FLTR) tracks an index of floating rate notes or “floaters” with coupons that are linked to three-month LIBOR or other standard reference rates.
Worries about inflation continue to weaken the dollar and send gold and silver to new highs. In today’s trading, the front-month contract for Silver settled up $1.597, or 3.4%, at $46.062 per troy ounce — a 31-year high according to the Wall Street Journal.