Opportunities With Asian Small-Cap ETFs

The economic situation here is still in flux, but there are exchange traded fund (ETF) opportunities that could be found on other shores.

Granted, we have seen a nice rally over in the U.S. markets over the past few weeks, but the underlying cause of the collapse has still not been solved.  Too many U.S. companies borrowed beyond their means and are still up to their eyeballs in debt.  The opposite is true in Asia, there are people sitting on piles of cash, states Brett Arends of The Wall Street Journal.

Asian companies are also attractive because of how cheap they are.  Many are trading at 10 times likely earnings and some are selling at a few times earnings.  To top it all off, the fundamentals of some Asian companies may still be sound, in that they carry low levels of debt. Could this provide opportunities down the line? Make no mistake: this recession has touched anyone and everyone.

If you want to grab exposure to emerging Asia and Japan, take a look at the following ETFs:

• SPDR S&P International Small Cap (GWX): down 8.6% year-to-date; 55.5% of assets are allocated to Asia; note that it’s above the 50-day moving average, but still below its 200-day

• iShares MSCI Japan Small Cap Index (SCJ): down 17.3% year-to-date; 92.7% of assets are in Japan

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