Five ETFs to Watch This Week
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Both earnings and global concerns will weigh on already-nervous investors this week.
ETF holders should keep an eye on these five funds as currencies, debt, regulation and fear are all set to act on stocks this week.
CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE) - Get Report
The prospect of massive, unmanageable defecits undermined the value of the euro last week -- and investors will not be quick to forget the plunge.
As the global economy struggles to get a grasp on budgets across Europe, movement in FXE could help investors get a sense of the market as a whole.
Even investors who do not use FXE as a hedge for other investments should keep an eye on this economic sign-post this week. Major changes in the value of the euro could lead jumpy markets across the globe.
Market Vectors Steel ETF
(SLX) - Get Report
Major miners
BHP Billiton
(BHP) - Get Report
and
Vale
(VALE) - Get Report
, and steelmaker
ArcelorMittal
(MT) - Get Report
will report earnings in the middle of this week, so SLX investors should keep an eye out.
Currency currents could also rock SLX, as witnessed by Friday's volatile dollar. As the U.S. dollar strengthened last week, shares of BHP and RTP sank. Conflicting pressures, such as earnings and currencies, will continue to temper SLX this week.
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers ETF
(IAI) - Get Report
NYSE Euronext
(NYX)
and the
Nasdaq OMX Group
will both be reporting earnings early this week, and investors will be looking to results in order to judge the health of the exchange industry.
IAI is particularly vulnerable to the raft of regulation being considered in Washington. Regulatory changes could either drive investors elsewhere, and/or require large institutions to trade more transparently on major exchanges.
Advances in technology have transformed the face of major U.S. exchanges, and even minor trading advantages can drive volume. Earnings this week will continue to reveal whether stocks like NYX and NDAQ can keep up with the times.
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Goods ETF
(IYK) - Get Report
Investors should look for IYK to get a lift from top components like
Coca-Cola
(KO) - Get Report
and
PepsiCo
(PEP) - Get Report
this week as the soft-drink makers report earnings on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
Analysts are expecting both companies to report better fourth-quarter earnings than a year ago as both firms have struggled to recover from the economic slowdown.
While declining consumption of carbonated beverages has dented both companies in the U.S., global growth could help both to shine this week and bolster IYK.
KO and PEP make up 9.90% and 8.12% of IYK, respectively.
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN
(VXX) - Get Report
If last week's market performance proved anything, it's that investors are nervous. News from abroad and data from home sent U.S. investors scattering.
While VXX isn't designed for the average investor, surges in volume and price are good indicators of how worried the major players are.
Investors looking for a direct hedge against volatility have come to the wrong place if they are scooping up shares of VXX, as this ETN has serious shortcomings.
Sometimes, however, order flow is telling, and a growing interest in VXX has been a signpost of market sentiment.
At the time of publication, Dion was long IYK.
Don Dion is president and founder of
, a fee-based investment advisory firm to affluent individuals, families and nonprofit organizations, where he is responsible for setting investment policy, creating custom portfolios and overseeing the performance of client accounts. Founded in 1996 and based in Williamstown, Mass., Dion Money Management manages assets for clients in 49 states and 11 countries. Dion is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts and Maine and has more than 25 years' experience working in the financial markets, having founded and run two publicly traded companies before establishing Dion Money Management.
Dion also is publisher of the Fidelity Independent Adviser family of newsletters, which provides to a broad range of investors his commentary on the financial markets, with a specific emphasis on mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. With more than 100,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 29 other countries, Fidelity Independent Adviser publishes six monthly newsletters and three weekly newsletters. Its flagship publication, Fidelity Independent Adviser, has been published monthly for 11 years and reaches 40,000 subscribers.