Schwab Survey Shows Which Generation Has Taken to ETFs the Most?

Investors’ knowledge and use of exchange traded funds nearly doubled over the past five years, and 42% expect ETFs to become their primary investment vehicle in the future, according to Charles Schwab’s 2017 ETF Investor Study.

The seventh annual study interviewed 1,264 investors in June between the ages of 25 and 75. They needed to have purchased an ETF in the last two years and have at least $25,000 in investable assets.

Eight percent of the investors said their portfolios already consist of only ETFs and 43% would consider holding only ETFs instead of individual securities.

The millennials generation has taken to ETFs the most — 56% of them say they’re their investment vehicle of choice. Among the members of Generation X, 44% said ETFs were their favorite vehicle; for baby boomers it was 30%; and for matures, those older than baby boomers, it was 23%.

Of millennials, 60% expect ETFs to be their primary investment vehicle in the future. That drops to 45% among Generation X, 23% among baby boomers and 17% for matures.

At least some financial advisors are scratching their heads over the survey results.  “I haven’t found that to be the case,” said Robert Karn, president of Karn Couzens & Associates, a registered investment advisor in Farmington, Conn. “Many of our clients have heard about ETFs, but they don’t know what they do. I don’t see millennials leading the charge. I don’t see in my practice what they’re saying in the survey.”

A low expense ratio is the most important factor in choosing an ETF, according to 62% of the respondents. Total cost was second, followed by, in declining order, the ETF provider’s reputation; how well it tracks its index; its historical returns; its liquidity/trading volume; if it’s commission-free; its exposure to a specific part of the market; its Morningstar rating; and finally, its total assets.

Investors are placing increased importance on the ability to trade ETFs without commissions. This year 55% said working with a brokerage that offered commission-free ETFs was very or most important, up from 38% in the 2012 survey.

Only 1 in 10 currently invest in socially responsible investments (SRI), 55% say they’ve heard about SRI and 35% don’t even know what SRI is. However, interest in SRI is growing. About 51% of the respondents said they would invest in SRI strategies if more education on products or asset allocation were provided.

Still, almost half of the ETF investors said it was important to them to invest in funds that align with their beliefs, 30% said they would actively seek out socially responsible funds and 42% preferred a strategy that was tailored to their values. About 53% said they had a “pretty good understanding” of how socially responsible their investments are and 46% said it was important to invest in socially responsible funds because they want their investments to align with their beliefs.

Interest in SRI investing is highest among millennials at 48%. Only 32% of Gen X investors seek out SRI strategies. That drops to 14% for baby boomers and 9% for matures.

“It surprised me how it reinforced my understanding of the demographic tilt toward ETFs,” said Steven Schoenfeld, founder and chief investment officer at BlueStar Indexes, which provides the benchmarks for the VanEck Vectors Israel ETF (ISRA) and the ETF Managers Trust BlueStar TA-BIGITech Israel Technology ETF (ITEQ). “It shows the appeal when people see they can do almost as well, if not as well, by aligning their values. It just makes them feel better and might make them better investors if their connection is more than just better returns. Then when the market gets volatile they might stick with it.”

With smart beta, 29% of the respondents said they currently invest in smart beta strategies and 59% said they planned to increase their investments in smart beta in the next year. About two-thirds of ETF investors have reduced active exposures over the last three years and replaced them with smart beta exposures.

This was originally published in Investor’s Business Daily.

She is Belle of ETF.com Awards

Women might not have broken the ultimate glass ceiling in American politics, but they took the top prizes at the ETF.com Awards.

Yes, it’s awards time again for the ETF industry and starting off the festivities was ETF.com, a Web site full of stories, tools and fund analysis.

The SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF, with the ticker (SHE), swept the ceremony by walking away with four of the top awards, more than any other ETF has taken home in the history of this specific award ceremony. The fund won Best New ETF, Most Innovative New ETF, Best New U.S. Equity ETF and Thematic ETF of the Year.

Fearless girl courtesy of SSGA

Were the judges trying to soften the blow women took on the political plane this year? Possibly. State Street Global Advisors, the sponsor of the fund, is responsible for installing the “Fearless Girl” statue near Wall Street on International Women’s Day last month. The statue represents the lack of gender diversity on Wall Street and the executive suites of U.S. corporations in general.

State Street said it created SHE, as the Gender Diversity Fund is affectionately known, to “invest in large-capitalization companies that rank among the highest in their sector in achieving gender diversity across senior leadership. SHE offers a means to invest in companies that have demonstrated greater gender diversity within their sector, providing investors with a tool to inspire change and make an impact.”

According to a 2015 paper from MSCI ESG Research, companies in the MSCI World Index with strong female leadership saw a return on equity of 10.1% per year compared with 7.4% for companies lacking suck leadership. We would be remiss if we failed to point out that on State Street’s board of directors only three of the 11 are women.

It appears the “Fearless Girl” is creating a lot of buzz too, as she stands facing the famous “Charging Bull” statue of Wall Street. The Bull’s creator thinks the girl statue violates his artistic rights and changes the meaning of his statue, which represents the strength of America and the market.

The Best ETF of 2016 was actually the VanEck Vectors Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF (ANGL). This award is given to a fund that did its job particularly well in a particular year. In 2016, this fund surged 25%, at least 10 percentage points more than its main competitors in a year when high-yield bonds were posting great returns.

I’ll just let ETF.com explain how the fund works: “Typically, investors hold bonds at different tranche levels, and as soon as a bond falls out of the investment-grade bucket, every insurance company must sell all of it, pushing these bonds into oversold territory, the result is that these downgraded bonds tend to outperform almost immediately after being downgraded – the very juice ANGL is extracting. What’s more these newly downgraded bonds don’t carry that much more default risk.”

For full list of ETF.com awards click here.

Emerging Market ETFs Rally in Spite of Trump Trade Threat

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, emerging-market ETFs tumbled as investors feared that the new administration’s protectionist trade policies would hurt the countries in these markets. But then a funny thing happened. After ranking as one of the worst-performing sectors in the last quarter of 2016, emerging- market ETFs began the new year with a rally and are outperforming U.S. stocks.

So far this year, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) has jumped 10%, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) leapt 10%, and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) climbed 10% vs. 5% for the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY).

Part of the reason is that prior to the election, 2016 had been a pretty good year for emerging markets. Because many emerging markets are tied to commodities, the prior four years had been pretty bad because of falling commodity prices and slowing growth in China. But in 2016, commodity prices began to rise and China’s economic slowdown stabilized.

A big part of the postelection drop was out of concern for the economy of Mexico should Trump attempt to renegotiate Nafta and anxiety over trade barriers with China, according to Mitch Tuchman, chief investment officer at Rebalance IRA, a retirement investment advisor, in Palo Alto, Calif.

Robert Johnson, Morningstar’s director of economic analysis, said the recent performance is a continuation of last year’s rally. He also said companies and investors have begun to think that, in the wake of Trump’s mishandling of the immigration ban, he might not be able to implement his trade policies, especially as he gets pushback from industries hurt by trade bans and tariffs.

Also, since the trade policies haven’t yet been defined and investors think most emerging markets, besides Mexico and China, won’t be affected, they’re jumping back in.

“After five years of underperformance, emerging markets were oversold, and the election flushed out the remaining people hanging on,” said Gerald Laurain, chief investment officer with FTB Advisors, an RIA in Memphis, Tenn., with $4 billion in assets under management. “So now that they’ve established a low, the only place to go isup.”

J.J. Feldman, a portfolio manager at Miracle Mile Advisors, a Los Angeles-based RIA, said the valuations are much more compelling. The price/earnings ratio on the emerging markets is 12 vs. an expensive 18 on the S&P 500. He added that emerging- market stocks are yielding 2.25% vs. the S&P’s 2%.

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, an asset manger in Westport, Conn., has a different angle. “When there is protectionism, America is the loser,” he said. “And tariffs will backfire. People are making the connection that it will weaken the dollar. Meanwhile, the euro is bottoming out and that is better for emerging markets.”

“Europe seems to be doing better, and it’s more important to China than the U.S.,” said Johnson. “There’s better growth there, no new rules and other markets they can sell into.”

So far through this year, the top country-specific ETFs are all in emerging markets. IShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap (EWZS) has soared 30%, VanEck Vectors Brazil Small-Cap (BRF) surged 26%, iShares Brazil Capped (EWZ) is up 18%, Global X MSCI Argentina (ARGT) up 16%, and KraneShares CSI China Internet (KWEB) up 16%.

After a brutal two-year recession in Brazil, during which President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and replaced by Michel Temer, the country is finally expected to be on the road to recovery. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles expects the Brazilian economy to return to a 2% annual growth pace by the last quarter of the year. Wall Street is forecasting a more realistic 0.2% growth rate in 2017 gross domestic product. Brazil’s economy is driven by resources and commodities. Its top commodity exports are oil, iron ore, soybeans, sugar cane and coffee.

While China is seeing its economy slowing, with GDP expected to post growth of 6.7% for 2016, that’s the kind of slowdown most country’s would kill for. Right now China is dealing with a cooling housing market, explosive growth in debt, and painful structural reforms instituted by President Xi Jinping.

“E-commerce is going well and that is tapping into a strong part of the economy,” said Rob Lutts, president and chief investment officer of Cabot Wealth Management, an RIA, in Salem, Mass. Lutts spends a lot of time traveling in China. “Investing in Alibaba is like investing in Amazon.com.”

Lutts said that China will have a big challenge over the next five years with a big debt bubble that will have to be distributed over the rest of the economy. This will bring the economic growth rate down to 5% by 2020. “They will have stress when the real estate bubble comes down in price, and that will hurt the smaller banks in the next six months.”

But Lutts is very bullish on India. For the fiscal year ended March 2016, India’s economy grew 7.9%, and Lutts said it could go higher. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is instituting reforms to remove government obstacles to business and make the government more efficient. Lutts said his favorite way to invest in India is in the financial services sector.

He thinks HDFC Bank is one of the best-managed banks in the world. It’s also the top holding of iShares MSCI India ETF (INDA), No. 3 in WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (EPI), No. 2 in iShares India 50 ETF (INDY) and No. 3 in PowerShares India Portfolio (PIN). The ETFs’ year-to-date gains range from 8.8% to 9.8%.

Overall, all the experts think that because Europe is growing and Trump’s policies are still undefined, emerging markets should keep rising throughout the year.

Orginally published in Investor’s Business Daily.

Can China ETFs Continue Their Ascent?

China ETFs’ recent gyrations are enough to give one whiplash. Many have behaved like the Shanghai Composite Index recently. After soaring 152% over the previous 12 months — 60% this year alone — to a seven-year high on June 12, the benchmark for mainland China’s stock market hit a significant speed bump.

Last week the index stumbled 13% into a much-anticipated correction. A 5% rally the first three days of this week gave way to selling Thursday, cutting the week’s gain so far to 1%.

“The sheer increase in prices this year is something that makes me want to stand back,” said John Rutledge, chief investment strategist for Safanad, an investment house in New York. “I don’t know any fundamental reason why prices should have doubled this year, and that price behavior sounds like a bubble.”

Rutledge is referring to the fact that the Chinese economy’s growth rate has slowed to a six-year low of 7%. But if fundamental analysis can’t explain it, macroeconomics can. With central banks all over the world cutting interest rates, there is flood of liquidity looking for returns.

The first thing to know is that there are two markets in China. The Hong Kong market, which has long been open to global investors, trades what are known as H-shares. Then there are the mainland markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen. They trade A-shares, which had been limited to domestic investors.

But last year the Shanghai and Hong Kong markets created a system that let global investors buy A-shares and domestic investors buy H-shares. This change has brought a lot of money to the mainland markets.

On top of that, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has cut interest rates three times since November, and more cuts are expected.

Finally, throw in a slowdown in the Chinese real estate market. It led the Chinese government to encourage investments in stocks by making it easier for Chinese retail investors to open accounts and buy stocks on margin.

Loss Of Liquidity

And a loss of liquidity sparked last week’s correction. First, Chinese regulators, worried that the market was getting overleveraged, tightened the rules on margin trading. Then a slew of initial public offerings sucked up a lot of cash.

There’s no doubt that China is risky. But gains could resume if the economy picks up and government stimulus programs continue. And index provider MSCI is evaluating A-shares for inclusion in its emerging markets index. That could spark demand by many funds that track MSCI indexes.

If you want China A-Shares in your portfolio, investing in ETFs is the way to go. KraneShares offers four ETFs focused on China. Its Bosera MSCI China A ETF (ARCA:KBA) holds more than 300 large-cap and midcap stocks on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

KraneShares says that these are the stocks that would be included in an MSCI emerging markets index. KBA is up 40% year to date and 126% in the past 12 months. It has an expense ratio of 0.85%.

Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (ARCA:ASHR) tracks the CSI 300 Index, which holds the largest and most liquid stocks in the A-share market. It’s up 35% year to date and 129% for the past year. It charges 0.8% of assets for expenses.
Market Vectors ChinaAMC A-Share ETF (ARCA:PEK) also tracks the CSI 300 index but charges less: 0.72%. It’s up 39% year to date and 132% in the 12 months. The big difference is that ASHR is more liquid and offers a 0.2% yield, while PEK offers none.

As liquidity improves in July, David Goldman, managing director of investment firm Reorient Group, sees a market recovery and a move back up beyond the 5,000 level for the Shanghai Composite.

“Economic fundamentals are clearly improving, and so are regulatory incentives for stock market growth,” he wrote this week.

Originally published in Investor’s Business Daily.

WisdomTree Wins ETF of Year at ETF.com Awards As ProShares Walks Away With 4 Statues

It’s award time again.

Much like Spring follows Winter, although reports of more snow this weekend are leading some to question that, the ETF industry starts its period of self-congratulations on the heels of the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes.

ETF.com, the self-proclaimed world’s leading authority on exchange-traded funds, started the season off with their second annual awards banquet.

“Our awards try to recognize the products that make a difference to investors,” said Matt Hougan, president of ETF.com. “The ones finding new areas to put money to work.” The awards are determined by a panel of experts chosen by ETF.com.

Held at The Lighthouse restaurant at New York’s Chelsea Piers March 19, ETF.com wins the prize for best party location. With picture windows overlooking the Hudson River, guests of the cocktail hour took in the sunset over New Jersey before the ceremony started.

The WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity (HEDJ) was the big winner, grabbing the prize for ETF of the Year, while the Market Vectors ChinaAMC China Bond (CBON) won Best New ETF. Not quite sure what the difference is between those two awards, but obviously both funds stand out from the crowd of 117 ETFs issued in 2014.

However, ProShares swept the evening, as the single provider that won the most awards. The twin funds ProShares CDS North American HY Credit (TYTE) and CDS Short North American HY Credit (WYDE) claimed the awards for both Most Innovative New ETF and Best New Fixed-Income ETF.

“We designed these ETFs for investors who want high yield credit exposure that is isolated from interest rate risk,” said Steve Cohen, ProShares managing director.

The fund was also nominated for Best Ticker of the Year with its homophones for “tight” and “wide”. However, the awards announcer had a chuckle by claiming they really were pronounced “tighty whitey”, a reference to his jockey shorts. Best Ticker was awarded to HACK, the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF.

ProShares also won Best New Alternative ETF for the ProShares Morningstar Alternative Solution (ALTS) and Most Innovative ETF Issuer of the Year.

“We are always striving to deliver new and innovative products to allow investors to build better portfolios,” said ProShares Chief Executive Michael Sapir.

Lee Kranefuss, the man who created the iShares brand of ETFs and built them into the largest ETF issuer in the world won the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award.

In the only speech of the night — thank goodness — Kranefuss said, “ETFs allow people to take control.” He likened ETFs to iTunes, saying “no longer are you limited to what the record company puts out.” He said he’s often been asked if he thought the ETF industry would take off like it has in the 15 years since iShares launched.

“Not really,” said Kranefuss, “we just put out the best products we could put out.”

The other award winners:

Best New U.S. Equity ETF – iShares Core Dividend Growth (DGRO)
Best New International/Global Equity ETF – Deutsche X-trackers Harvest MSCI All China Equity (CN)
Best New Commodity ETF – AdvisorShares Gartman Gold/Euro (GEUR) and AdvisorShares Gartman Gold/Yen (GYEN).
Best New Asset Allocation ETF – Global X /JPMorgan Efficiente (EFFE)
ETF Issuer of the Year – First Trust
New ETF Issuer of the Year – Reality Shares
Index Provider of the Year – MSCI
Index of the Year – Bloomberg Dollar Index
Best Online Broker for ETF-Focused Investors – TD Ameritrade
Best ETF Offering for RIAs – Charles Schwab
Best ETF Issuer Website – BlackRock

WisdomTree Wins Capital Link’s Top ETF Award

It’s award season again in ETF Land.

Capital Link held its 11th annual Closed-End Funds and Global ETFs Forum yesterday at its traditional home New York’s Metropolitan Club. During the conference Capital Link delivers awards to both the closed-end fund and ETF industries. However, I’m just listing the ETF awards. The awards are based on nominations by a committee of analysts and industry specialists who actively follow the products. Capital Link isn’t part of the nominating committee nor can members of the committee be candidates for the awards.

Capital Link’s award for Most Innovative ETF in 2011 went to the WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy Fund (WDTI).

iShares won two awards: Best Shareholder Relations for best financial disclosure and proactive shareholder communications and Best Investor Relations ETF Website for most informative and user friendly financial Website.

The Most Innovative Index went to the Russell-Axioma IS Large Cap Low Volatility Index (LVOL).

Jan Van Eck, the president of Market Vectors ETFs, won the award for biggest contribution to the ETF sector in 2011. No explanation of the contribution was given, but audience members suggested it was for killing the Holdrs products.

In the category of awards to ETF analysts, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney won for best research team in both the ETF and closed-end fund industries. The team consists of Michael Jabara, David Perlman and Stephen Minar. Mariana Bush of Wells Fargo Advisors won the award for the analyst who made the biggest contribution to the ETF sector last year. She also tied for contribution to the closed-end fund sector with Jon Maier of Bank of America Securities – Merrill Lynch.

Down 50% in 2 Days, TVIX Could Fall More Monday

After the VelocityShares Daily 2x Long VIX Short-Term ETN (TVIX) plunged 30% in Thursday, Credit Suisse, the sponsor of the controversial fund, reopened share issuance on a “limited basis.” The ETF proceed to fall again Friday for a 50% drop over two days.

The Swiss banking giant was blamed for the two-day decline, by Benzinga, because it had temporarily halting new issuance of TVIX shares last month.

“Beginning March 23, 2012, Credit Suisse may from time to time issue the ETNs into inventory of its affiliates to make the ETNs available for lending at or about rates that prevailed prior to the temporary suspension of issuances of the ETNs. Also, beginning as soon as March 28, 2012, Credit Suisse may issue additional ETNs from time to time to be sold solely to authorized market makers,” according to a written statement issued by the bank after Thursday’s close.

Benzinga says “the halt in TVIX share creations may have caused a massive spike in the ETN’s net asset value. The elevated NAV and ensuing plunge in TVIX indicates that, simply put, traders discovered said premium and exploited it.”

TVIX’s slide continued in after-hours trading where the ETN lost almost another 12% and was found at $9 at 8:30PM Eastern Time. That’s by far the the lowest price TVIX has ever traded at.

On Friday, the shares fell 30% to $7.16 on volume of 29.3 million shares, more than twice its daily average volume. That’s 62% of the 46.7 million shares outstanding. And with the shares still 7% above their indicative value of $6.70, according to VelocityShares, the ETN could see another decline on Monday.

ETF Reading List:

China’s PMI Data Could Hinder, Help These ETFs (HAO, FXI, MCHI) (Benzinga)

Happy Water Day? Maybe For Water ETFs (PIO, PHO, CGW) (Benzinga)

Yorkville High Income MLP ETF’s Yield 8.5% On Average (Investors.com)

Seriously? Credit Suisse to Allow New TVIX Creations (TVIX, CS) (Benzinga)

Avoid These ETFs For Now (FXI, TVIX, GDXJ) (Benzinga)

ETF Companies Seek Vanity Plates for Tickers

Rachel Louise Ensign wrote a funny story in the Wall Street Journal on ETF sponsors searching for memorable ticker symbols to help market their funds. Laura Morrison of the New York Stock Exchange says they’re like vanity plates on cars. But with 1,350 symbols already in use on the NYSE Arca, the biggest exchange for ETFs, and another 2,446 reserved for future products, it’s getting hard to find something catchy.

Ensign likes the literal, such as SOIL, the ticker for the Global X Fertilizers/Potash ETF, the figurative, such as DUST for the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares and the alluring, such as GGGG for the Global X Pure Gold Miners ETF.

My all-time favorite is humor, with MOO, the symbol for Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF. For literal, it’s hard to beat EGPT for Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF or CORN for the Teucrium Corn Fund. For figurative I like GULF for WisdomTree’s Middle East Dividend Fund
.

The question on whether these vanity plates help a fund’s marketing efforts ends up with a big possibly considering the Global X Farming ETF, with the ticker BARN, gets ready to shut down this month.

The Dangers of Buying on Disasters

Charles Wallace wrote an intersting story for Daily Finance about the risks of buying ETFs on disaster news. He specifically looked at ETFs that focused on the Japanese and Egyptian equity markets.

Wallace quotes me in the article saying you shouldn’t put a lot of money into these kinds of ETFs and to make sure you’re diversified. However, a lot of my insights from our interview didn’t make it into the article, especially about the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (EWJ) and the main Egypt ETF, the Market Vectors Egypt Index (EGPT). Shares of Egyptian stocks, and hence the Egypt ETF were driven down by protests against President Hosni Mubarak.

Wallace wrote “Trading in the EGPT was brisk in the U.S., and the ETF moved consistently higher even though the stock market in Egypt was closed for more than a month. When the Egyptian Exchange reopened on Tuesday, stocks dropped 10% and EGPT opened at $15.86, a decline of 17% from its March 9 high.”

Anytime an ETF tracks a foreign country, especially one whose market is closed during U.S. trading hours, it can move on news that occurs after the foreign market closes. This typically puts the ETF’s price at a premium or discount to the underlying stocks in the portfolio. However, nearly every time, the movement of the ETF correctly predicts the movement of the local market when it finally opens the next day. So, these premiums or discounts last less than 24 hours. While there is some risk in these kinds of trades, the ETFs usually seem to be doing the price discovery for the closed local market.

However, when a market is closed like the Egyptian market was for a month, then the ETF begins to trade like a closed-end fund. That’s because the arbitrage mechanism that balances out the creation and redemption of the ETF’s shares is unable to work. At that point, the price discovery mechanism is dismantled and the ETF shares can trade dramatically far from the actual value of the underlying stocks in the portfolio. Without the arbs there to keep the share price closely linked to the underlying portfolio, it ceases to trade on fundamentals and becomes pure speculation.

Conclusion, if the ETF can no longer buy the underlying shares of the market it tracks, stay away. You are playing with fire and bound to get burned.

Quake Shakes Japan, Nuclear ETFs

Fears over the impact Friday’s earthquake and tsunami will have on Japan’s economy sent the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunging 6.2% in its first day of trading since the 9.0-magnitude quake struck. This led U.S. investors to sell stocks. At Monday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from its lows, to post a decline of 0.43% to 11993 and the S&P 500 slid 0.54% to 1296.

Here’s a brief look at how ETFs affected by the crisis reacted on Monday The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (EWJ) sank 7% to $10.05. The WisdomTree Japan Total Dividend ETF (DXJ) tumbled 7% to $35.620. The Rydex CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) advanced 0.26% to $120.92.

Meanwhile, the trouble at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex sent fears rippling through the U.S. nuclear industry. Officials said an explosion occured at the site’s Unit 3 reactor, while the fuel rods at the Unit 2 were fully exposed, causing fears of a nuclear meltdown at the reactor. PowerShares Global Nuclear Energy Portfolio (PKN) plunged 11% to $18.97 and the Market Vectors Uranium + Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR) plummeted 12% to $22.46.

UPDATE: Tuesday 12:09 am. The New York Times has reported the Nikkei index has plunged 13% on worries about the radiation fallout from a potential nuclear disaster. It looks like Tuesday will be a clustercuss.