ETF offerings debut on Wall Street

April 27, 2007

SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) - The plump exchange-traded fund (ETF) pipeline gave birth to new funds this week, adding to what looks to be a brisk second quarter in new offerings.

Claymore Securities announced the launch of two ETFs - the Claymore/Clear Mid-Cap Growth Index ETF (AMEX: MCG) and the Claymore/IndexIQ Small-Cap Value ETF (AMEX: SCV).

Mid cap stocks continue to perform strongly this year, so the timing for Claymore's mid cap ETF seems well timed.

The Clear mid-cap index is comprised of 50 stocks chosen by fundamental and valuation metrics including sales, profit growth, leverage and return on equity. The stocks selected are approximately equally weighted and the index rebalances on a quarterly basis.

The Claymore funds have expense ratios of 0.60% and trade on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

In other news, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) introduced two new international SPDRs ETFs.

The SPDR S&P International Small Cap ETF (AMEX: GWX) focuses on stocks with market capitalizations below $2 billion domiciled in developed countries outside the U.S. The expense ratio is 0.60 percent.

The SPDR S&P World ex-US ETF (AMEX: GWL) includes 5,000 companies domiciled in developed countries outside the U.S., including Canada. The expense ratio is 0.35 percent.
 

"In providing access to virtually the entire developed international market and the overseas small-cap market, these two new SPDRs are powerful additions for investors looking to build well-diversified portfolios,"  stated James Ross, senior managing director of State Street Global Advisors.