ETFs with exposure to various emerging markets saw a dip in performance last week amid the ongoing spat between the US and China.
Tariff hikes rebounding between the US and China has seen both domestic indices fall as the trade war continues. The S&P 500 had its worst day so far this year only a couple of weeks ago, falling 2.5% but has since rebounded slightly.
Following President Donald Trump’s threat to ban certain Asian-made products from entering the US such as mobile phone company Huawei, ETFs with exposure to emerging market countries such as Indonesia, Taiwan and even Brazil have seen their Net Asset Values (NAV) drop.
The HSBC MSCI Indonesia ETF (HIDR) was the worst performing ETF last week as a result of the US-China trade war as well as the upcoming presidential election. As ongoing riots continue in the streets of Indonesia’s capital, HIDR’s NAV fell 8.4% last week, according to data from Ultumus.
Furthermore, the Lyxor MSCI Taiwan ETF (TWN) and the Xtrackers MSCI Brazil ETF (DBX6) saw their NAVs fall 5.3% and 6.9%, respectively, over the same period. DBX6 also suffered outflows of $4.4m resulting in its assets under management taking a hit of 9.7%.
Latin America ETFs, which are majority weighted with Brazil domiciled companies, have fallen as a result. The iShares MSCI EM Latin America ETF (LTAM), with the rest of the emerging markets, saw its NAV fall 6.2% as well as $16.6m outflows.
As currencies go, it’s the US dollar that wins the battle. Over the last month, the Chinese yuan has fallen 2.8% against the dollar despite picking up 0.2% this week.
