A handful of foreign developed and emerging market ETFs jumped
to three-month highs Thursday and either broke above or extended
recent moves above their long-term, 200-day moving averages to
confirm new uptrends.Here is an overview of foreign markets that
broke out today:
1.iShares MSCI South Korea Index (
EWY
): +1.81%
2.iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (
EWT
): +1.52%
3.iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index (
EPOL
): +1.63%
4.iShares S&P Asia 50 Index (
AIA
): 1.04%
5.iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan Index (
AAXJ
): +0.72%
6.iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index (EWH): +0.54%
7.iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM): +0.4%
8.Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (AFK): +0.39%
9.Market Vectors Indonesia Index ETF (IDX): +0.24%
10.iShares MSCI Netherlands Investable Market Index (EWN):
+0.06%
The benchmarkiShares MSCI EAFE Index (EFA), tracking developed
foreign markets, was nearly flat, +0.04%.
Economic data from China lifted expectations that the country
will loosen monetary policy by the end of September to support
its economy, which would also ripple to its trading partners.
Chinese factory output fell in July to its weakest level in
just over three years while retail sales growth was slower than
expected, Reuters reported.
Monty Guild, chief investment officer and founder of Los
Angeles-based Guild Investment Management, is bullish on U.S. and
foreign markets. Guild and his colleagues explained to clients in
a note today that central banks around the world are pumping
money into their banking systems to boost asset prices.
Guild's shop has been buyingiShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund
(FXI), +0.20%, which tracks the 25 largest Chinese companies,
primarily state-owned enterprises. They are trading at
historically low valuations while yielding a 2.6% dividend.
Guild wrote: "It is no secret that China's industrial
production and exports have been disappointing. Export activity
will remain sluggish as Europe's economy (China's biggest export
customer) is shrinking, and the U.S. is in a very slow growth
mode. On the positive side, consumer spending is fine and raw
material costs are declining.
"A different group (of Communist Party leaders) will take the
reins later this year, and we suspect they will bring new
stimulus programs to not only boost an economy -- an economy
which is already growing at almost 8% -- but to improve China's
sagging stock market.
"In addition to more infrastructure spending (Beijing
announced a large increase in railroad spending last week), we
expect to see more loan growth, more liberalization of markets, a
surge in bank-financed spending, and more interest rate cuts on
the horizon."
Guild has also been buyingiShares S&P Europe 350 Index
(IEV), -0.18%, which tracks the largest companies in Europe. The
European markets are heavily shorted and when the crowd is
heavily swayed to one side of the market, it usually goes the
other way, Guild said. They are also trading at historically
cheap valuations.
Follow Trang Ho on Twitter
@TrangHoETFs
.