Japan: Weekly ETF and CEF Performance

Japanese funds delivered solid returns last week. Note the Nikkei 225 approached 18,000 intra-day yesterday, but is facing more selling pressure and is mostly flat in afternoon trading today.

See directly below for a one year chart of the N225 as of yesterday's (2/19) close.

The 10 Japanese ETFs/CEFs traded in the U.S. returned 3.58% on average last week.

The Japan Equity Fund, Inc. (JEQ), a closed-end fund, was the top performer at +4.77%. The Japan Smaller Capitalization Fund Inc. (JOF), another closed-end fund, took up the bottom at +0.36%.

Keep an eye on Nikkei futures trading in Chicago and Singapore and remember the Bank of Japan meets this Wednesday. See a related article covering weekly Japan ADR performance. And read about the new Yen currency ETF: CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY).

Disclosure: The author owns iShares Japan call options.