Palladium ETF Takes a Nosedive: Why Now's the Time to Buy

ETF Database submits: As the U.S. economy continues to struggle and more intervention from the Fed seems inevitable, the dollar has been battered in currency markets. The greenback has already lost close to 8% over the past few months against the world’s other major currencies, and while a Chinese rate hike earlier this week helped to temporarily stem the losses, the downward has now resumed.

By Tom Lydon: Palladium ETFs underperformed gold by a wide margin in 2011 but have held their own in recent months on an improved outlook for the global economy. A potential shortfall in physical palladium supply has helped boost investment appetite for the physically backed palladium ETF. Meanwhile, fund providers are hoarding more of the precious metal.

ETF Database submits: Over the past few years, the number of ETFs has grown exponentially; the industry now covers nearly every corner of the investable universe. The pace of innovation has been particularly impressive in the commodity space, which has seen interest surge as investors have become increasingly concerned over the health of the global economy and the ability of governments to pay back ballooning debt loads.

Michael Johnston submits:When ETF Securities finally cleared the last of the regulatory hurdles last year and geared up to introduce the first physically-backed platinum and palladium ETFs, investor interest quickly surged. Although futures-based exposure to platinum had been available for several years, exposure to physical bullion prices represents an entirely different asset class–apparently one that investors were eager to access.

By Hard Assets Investor: By Sumit Roy

Ron Rowland submits:For the first two new ETFs of 2010, the names pretty much say it all: ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL)).

ETF Database submits: Thanks to increased worries over the fiscal health in a variety of developed markets, many investors have sought to protect their portfolios from declining fiat currencies by buying up commodities. In response, a host of ETF issuers have created a variety of new products allowing investors to establish exposure to precious metals, including both commodity-specific funds and physically-backed products offering exposure to multiple precious metals.

Michael Johnston submits:ETF Securities, the giant in the European ETF scene that made the jump to the U.S. market last year, announced this week that it plans to issue new shares of two of its most popular physically-backed commodity ETFs.