Another Shot Across Asia's Bow

Still, investors in Asian ETFs may be among the hardest hit if Wen's comments are taken seriously by investors, and if the yen continues to appreciate. In recent trading, the dollar was trading at 116.72 yen, down from 117.56 late Thursday.

Charles Biderman, founder and CEO of Trim Tabs, writes that ETFs investing in non-U.S. stocks lost $193 million this week, while ETFs investing in U.S. funds gained $11.223 billion. The implication being that investors have been moving money out of foreign and emerging-market stocks and into the relative safety of the U.S. exchanges.

The leading redeemer is iShares MSCI Japan (EWJ Quote), losing $227 million -- or 1.6% of its total assets; the ETF has lost 7.3% of its value in the last month. On Friday, the index was recently unchanged.

In other Asian ETFs, the iShares FTSE Xinhua 25 (FXI Quote) has lost 9.3% of its value this month. The iShares Taiwan (EWT Quote) is off more than 5% on the month, while the iShares Hong Kong (EWH Quote) has plummeted 9.9% in the last month. (In recent trading, Hong Kong ETF was down 0.5% while the other two were relatively flat.)

As of Thursday's close, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM Quote) -- a proxy for emerging markets worldwide -- is off 6.9% from an all-time high of 119.58 at the end of February. In recent trading Friday, the ETF was marginally lower.