Emerging funds can offer long-term potential

Article Excerpt

With the current market troubles, many ETFs focused on emerging markets have dropped more than the overall markets. That’s in large part because a growing U.S. economy and sharply rising interest rates have pushed up the U.S. dollar. This typically results in capital flowing to the U.S. from emerging markets. That hurts investments in those economies. Even so, many emerging markets still offer diversification and the potential for above-average returns. As well, their stock market valuations appear cheap relative to developed markets. Here are two ETFs that provide investors with one-stop exposure to a basket of emerging-market companies (see the supplements on page 110 for more information). VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS STOCK INDEX ETF $36.05 (New York symbol VWO; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $96.1 billion) tracks the FTSE Emerging Markets Index. It invests in large and medium-sized companies listed in 23 developing countries. The ETF has a heavy weighting in China (33% of assets), and considerable exposure to Taiwan (17%) and India (18%). Brazil…