ETF Update: Barclays Pipeline, Back to School With IPOs, Tokyo Invites Foreign ETFs, Zacks Sector Rotation ETF

Barclays Working On Natural Gas, Private Equity, Infrastructure ETFs
In addition to working on the first ETF based on municipal bonds, Barclays Global Investors also has ETFs based on natural gas, private equity and infrastructure in the pipeline. Also, Barclays would like to expand its ETF products into international stocks, alternative investments, the 401(k) market and the 529 college-savings market, according to Reuters.

In relation to the ETF based on municipal bonds, Barclays plans to offer three products: one that targets California investors, one that targets New York investors and another broader, national product that is not state-specific. As of July 31, Barclays had $287 billion in U.S. ETF assets.

Back To School With IPO ETF
Although the IPO market is taking its usual end-of-summer vacation, when it gets back to work in the fall, investors could see more activity in the ETF that tracks the top 100 U.S. IPOs. That ETF is the First Trust IPOX-100 Index (FPX). Currently, FPX is up 2.9% year-to-date.

As of Aug. 15, 115 offerings with a value of more than $22 billion are in the pipeline, according to Amy Reeves for Investor's Business Daily. However, analysts are concerned that the market volatility that spread into recently released IPOs also could affect the upcoming ones. The strongest sectors with IPO filings are technology, biotech, oil and gas. The average IPO value is more than $200 million, which is up from 2006 when the average IPO value was $180 million.

Foreign ETFs On Tokyo Stock Exchange
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is planning to list a number of foreign ETFs in response to increased investor demand and growth in trading activity. TSE has been in talks with U.S. and European securities brokers to help supplement the process and make the ETFs available as soon as possible. Europe and the U.S. are enthusiastic about helping TSE create ETFs that will offer value and growth opportunities for investors.

TSE also has been studying various funds tied to commodities and is considering listing a commodity-based ETF that can be exchanged for gold, reports Kazuhiro Shimamura for The Wall Street Journal. Details currently are being settled, but there are no public announcements at the moment.

The Sit-Back-and-Relax ETF
An ETF that will track and research the market for you?

While it might sound too good to be true, such an ETF does exit. The Claymore/Zacks Sector Rotation (XRO) tracks the performance of the Zacks Sector Rotation Index that is rebalanced quarterly and rotates its investments between sectors. This ETF is the first of its kind and has shown a generally healthy performance since its launch last year in September. XRO is currently up 3.5% year-to-date.

XRO's holdings are 100 stocks pulled from 1,000 of the largest companies on U.S. exchanges. Research is based upon weighting returns, price, growth, estimates, and other macroeconomic factors. Companies on the list are expected to have a better risk-return than the S&P 500. Although no stock makes up more than 5% of XRO, a sector can take up as much as 45%, reports Joanne Von Alroth Investor's Business Daily.

That means targeting the right sector at the right time is essential, and this ETF does the work for you. As of July 3, XRO had 26% of its assets in finance, 17% in oil/energy and 13% in retail. Just because this ETF does the heavy lifting, investors still need to do research to know what is in it and if it continues to fit in their portfolio.