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NEW LISTINGS

MOO-ve Over

Van Eck expanded its unique family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by listing the Market Vectors – Agribusiness ETF (AMEX: MOO) on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). MOO is the seventh Van Eck ETF to hit the market.

The fund holds a variety of companies tied to the agricultural market, ranging from fertilizer producers (Potash) to tractor makers (Deere) to diversified agri-giants (Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto, etc.). Between the ethanol craze and a global wheat shortage, agriculture is a pretty hot market at the moment, and this fund is definitely the only real ETF offering in the space. Its only ostensible competitor, the Powershares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), takes an entirely different approach: DBA invests in agricultural futures contracts, while MOO invests in agriculture-related companies. The two are driven by completely different dynamics, and have performed very differently: DBA is up 9.67% year-to-date, while the index underlying MOO is up 32.40%. Both figures are as of July 31.

Full coverage from IndexUniverse.com is available here.

The prospectus is available here.

NEW FILINGS

25 BPS For BGI Muni Bond

There were no new ETF filings during the past week, but we did learn something about one of the closely watched municipal bond ETFs in registration. Barclays Global Investors said that it would price its iShares S&P National Municipal Bond ETF at 25 basis points (0.25%), reflecting a 0.30% expense ratio and a 0.05% discount.

There’s still no word yet on the pricing of the other municipal bond ETFs.

The BGI filing notice is available here.

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