We searched for funds and ETF’s in emerging markets from Eastern Europeto Russia to Asia to Africa to South America… and the actualsell-off from highs is starting to look amazing.  We haven’t even had aglobal economic crisis that hit Asia like we did in 1998.Interestingly enough, much of this may be solely on the global growthslowdown and a flight to quality.

What else is interesting is that chasing inflows and outflows for investorsin US markets versus emerging markets in real invested dollar terms isstaggering.  To move the market value of the DJIA up 1% in realsupply/demand driven stock markets is massive.  The value of the DJIA’s30 components alone is worth more than $3.5 Trillion on last look.  Itdoesn’t really take $35 Billion worth of net excess and aggregate stockbuying to drive the entire DJIA up 1%, but so the theory goes.  But a $35 Billionrotation into even a basket of emerging markets would create one hellof a market day around the globe.

Below are some of the closed-end mutual funds and ETF’s from emergingmarkets that hit 52-week lows on Friday and we have even shown how farsome of these are off from their stated 52-week highs:

• The China Fund, Inc. (NYSE: CHN) at $28.35, down 47% from $52.97 high
• iShares Malaysia (NYSE: EWM) at $9.32, down 33% from $14.05 high
• Latin American Discovery Fund Inc. (NYSE: LDF) at $22.10, down 39% from $36.23 high
• Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Fund Inc. (NYSE: MSF) at $16.16, down 54% from $35.45 high
• RMR ASIA REAL ESTATE (AMEX: RAF) at $10.97, down 35% from $17.08 high
• Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate (NYSE: TAO) at $15.99, down 42% from $27.57 high

Here are a few others with recognized names which have hit 52-week lowsin recent days or are at least very close to 52-week lows, and here we haveshown Friday’s closing price and how far down these are from stated52-week highs as well:

• Templeton Russia and East European Fund Inc. (NYSE: TRF) at $45.62, down 41% from $78.00 high
• Indonesia Fund Inc. (AMEX: IF) at $8.69, down about 38% from $14.00 high
• iShares MSCI South Africa Index (NYSE: EZA) at $53.47, down 30% from $76.90 high
• The Chile Fund Inc. (AMEX: CH) at $16.10, down about 33% from $24.00 high

If we were allowed to go on and on, this list of near-low emerging market ETF’s would go on and on as well.

Markets, particularly emerging markets, never die off permanently andindefinitely.  Many investors use these funds for their IRA’s and forlong-term speculation.  While troubles are abound in Afghanistan, Iraq,Georgia, Sudan, and other great destinations, remember the longsteadfast advice attributed to Templeton’s Mark Mobius: "Invest whenthere is blood in the streets." 

As far as where these trade in the days and weeks ahead is anyone’s guess.  Most investors start falling in love with emerging markets after they have made massive runs and when they look stable.  It takes those with guts and foresight to begin investing in these after they have seen major sell-offs.  Closed-end funds can also trade at huge premiums or discounts their net asset values, and we won’t dare make the analogy these markets are cheap just because they have sold off so much.  But all of these instruments do track markets rather than just a couple stocks and as we noted, those markets never stay down or out of favor forever.

We have started covering some of these issues for long-term investors and here are some of the recent articles:
Africa: The Final Emerging Market Frontier
On the Russian military action against Georgia
China, heading to recession?

Jon C. Ogg
August 18, 2008

Once again, we have dropped most of the ‘leveraged’ and ‘Short’ or ‘Ultra-Short’ ETF’s.  The idea is to show which sectors were the winners and losers.  We also screen out if too many ETF’s tied to the same sector are showing up so we can show the winners and losers by groups rather than solely be the numbers.  Here are today’s:

ETF WINNERS:
iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (EWT)                             +0.83%
PowerShares Dynamic Insurance (PIC)                    +0.63%
Ultra Utilities ProShares (UPW)                                   +0.61%
Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU)                              +0.57%
Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (BLV)                       +0.50%
iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury (TLT)                +0.48%
PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ)       +0.46%
iShares S&P Global Cons Discretionary (RXI)          +0.45%
PowerShares Dynamic Deep Value    (PVM)             +0.47%

ETF LOSERS:
iShares MSCI Mexico Index (EWW)                             -1.95%
PowerShares DB Silver (DBS)                                     -1.9%
SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services(XES) -1.87%
SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB)                                 -1.86%
iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB)    -1.79%
DJ Wilshire REIT ETF (RWR)                                        -1.71%
HealthShares European Drugs (HRJ)                         -1.70%
iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index (ILF)                   -1.7%
iShares MSCI Malaysia Index (EWM)                             -1.66%
KBW Capital Markets ETF    (KCE)                                 -1.65%
First Trust Value Line Equity Allc Index (FVI)                 -1.6%

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

These are not the absolute highest performing ETF’s because some such as the Ultra ETF’s use leverage, but here are the normal unleveraged ET’s that won today:

iShares MSCI Brazil Index                                         (EWZ) +2.76%
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index                     (FXI) +2.58%
PowerShares Dynamic Aggressive Growth           (PGZ) +2.47%
iPath S&P GSCI Total Return Index ETN                 (GSP) +2.37%
iShares Dow Jones US Oil Equipment Index         (IEZ) +2.28%
iShares MSCI South Korea Index                              (EWY) +2.27%
United States Natural Gas                                         (UNG)    +2.23%
iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust       (GSG)    +2.11%
Claymore/Robeco Developed World Equity            (EEW) +2.10%
Oil Services HOLDRs                                                  (OIH) +2.10%
iShares MSCI South Africa Index                               (EZA) +2.09%

As always, even on a second strong up day there were some losers.  We back out the ‘inverse fund’ ETF’s and also the leveraged versions of each.  Also, the real estate group was the least impressive and we only included a couple variations to prevent repetition.  Here are today’s losers:

DJ Wilshire REIT ETF                                                 (RWR) (-1.16%)
iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors                   (ICF) (-1.14%)
WisdomTree Japan High-Yielding Equity               (DNL) (-0.94%)
KBW Regional Banking ETF                                      (KRE) (-0.78%)
Shares S&P Global Healthcare                                 (IXJ) (0.58%)
iShares MSCI Malaysia Index                                     (EWM) (0.42%)

Jon C. Ogg
June 14, 2007