ECON etf, an indicator of conditions, non-U.S. ?

catch22

A 2 large cups of coffee morn'in to y'all,

The etf, ECON; does the performance give any clues about economic circumstances outside of the U.S., at least in some countries ?

Obviously, the holdings of this fund can not be a broad monitor for all things global. But, the holdings in this fund are not a mish-mash of clucker companies thrown together by a dart board system. The fund holds decent companies.

Perhaps the performance is merely caught in the general malaise performance of the emerging markets that are out of favor today; versus the recent performances of the stimulated (central bank programs) developed countries (U.S., Europe and Japan). We know money flows (big investment houses) in cycles, eh?

Fidelity composition view

3 year chart.......from Sept. 2011 low to date, +29% return

Note: Our house does not hold ECON but does monitor the fund.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Regards,
Catch

Ted

Dear Catch22: Not sure what your purpose was in posting this. We all know Emerging-Market Funds are having a rough time.
Regards,
Ted

AndyJ

I don't know, Catch. The EM consumer trade became kind of fad-ish there for a while, so I think there's been a momentum + valuation component to the rise and fall of ECON. I don't think it'd be useful to try to draw any economic conclusions from it, and generally I don't think any investment product has very much useful to say about the broader economic situation.

scott

Some of these names were (and some still are) in my opinion overdone. Some of the names have come down to the point where they are interesting, like FEMSA and Ambev, although still not great values. FEMSA I worry about in terms of cracking down on soda, although their giant convenience store chain will likely continue to be a bright spot. I think the EM consumer theme is interesting, but you really have to be willing to have a very long-term view. I'd also include some names that don't appear to be in the fund.