ETF Watch: New Filings (May 15-22)

By Heather Bell

NEW FILINGS

SSgA Files For New International And Fixed Income ETFs

SSgA has filed for four new fixed income ETFs and four new international ETFs.

The international funds cover one country, Ireland, and three emerging market regions: Southeast Asia, Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council markets. Ireland is a bit of a surprise as the SPDR family generally takes a regional approach to international investing and does not usually cover individual countries outside of the U.S. There are a few exceptions, such as Japan and China, but Ireland seems a strange choice. The filing raises the possibility that SSgA may be expanding into territory previously only covered by MSCI (and now the Northern Trust NETS). The underlying index will be S&P/Citigroup Capped Ireland Index.

The SPDR S&P Emerging Markets South East Asia ETF will track the S&P Southeast Asia 40 Index, which covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Emerging GCC-Middle East ETF will track the S&P GCC 40 Index, which covers Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The SPDR S&P Emerging Africa ETF will track the S&P Africa 40 Index, which covers Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. The SPDR family already includes the SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa ETF (AMEX: GAF), but it is heavily weighted toward South Africa and Israel.

The fixed income ETFs all track indexes from Lehman Brothers and cover mortgage-backed securities, U.S. convertible bonds, and long-term and intermediate-term bonds. They include the SPDR Lehman Mortgage Backed Bond ETF, the SPDR Lehman Intermediate Term Credit Bond ETF, the SPDR Lehman Long Term Credit Bond ETF and the SPDR Lehman Convertible Bond ETF. Interestingly, iShares already offers ETFs linked to the Lehman Brothers MBS and intermediate-term credit bond indexes.

Read the prospectus for the international ETFs here.

Read the prospectus for the fixed income ETFs here.

Fund	Symbol	Exchange	Expense Ratio	Listing Date	Category
SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Small Cap ETF	EWX	AMEX	0.65%	5/16/2008	International - Emerging
NETS Hang Seng China Enterprises Index Fund	SNO	NYSE Arca	0.51%	5/19/2008	International - Emerging - Country
NETS BEL 20 Index Fund	BRU	NYSE Arca	0.47%	5/19/2008	International - Developed - Country
NETS AEX-Index Fund	AEX	NYSE Arca	0.47%	5/19/2008	International - Developed - Country
PowerShares Autonomic Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio	PTO	AMEX	0.25%	5/20/2008	Multi-Asset Class
PowerShares Autonomic Balanced Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio	PAO	AMEX	0.25%	5/20/2008	Multi-Asset Class
PowerShares Autonomic Balanced NFA Global Asset Portfolio	PCA	AMEX	0.25%	5/20/2008	Multi-Asset Class
WisdomTree U.S. Current Income Fund	USY	NYSE Arca	0.25%	5/20/2008	Currency
WisdomTree Dreyfus Japanese Yen fund	JYF	NYSE Arca	0.35%	5/21/2008	Currency

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