Two ETFs to Play Increasing Global Coal Demand

Kevin Grewal submits: Coal is the second largest overall source of energy and has witnessed demand grow at rates higher than oil and natural gas over the past few years and is expected to continue to do so, paving the path to opportunity for the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) and the PowerShares Global Coal Portfolio (

Don Dion submits: Cold weather in China will help the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) and the PowerShares Global Coal Portfolio (PKOL), as both funds have over 20% of their portfolios dedicated to the Chinese coal industry.

By Shaun Connell:China Daily recently reported that coal demand would likely fall in the second quarter of 2012, because of the now sluggish and slowing Chinese economy. The newspaper reported: Supply and demand will continue to be roughly balanced in the country's coal market during the second quarter, Wang Xianzheng, chairman of the China Coal Industry Association, said at a meeting...

Coal will nearly overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and only a drop in world gas prices could curb the use of the dirtier fossil fuel in the absence of high carbon prices, the International Energy Agency said. The IEA, the energy agency for developed countries, said earlier this year that without a major shift away from coal, average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change.

Last week’s exposure in this weekly ETF Pullback strategy was a bit scary: Two ETFs focusing on the Middle East and two on the U.S. consumer sector. How could I not be concerned that events in Egypt would continue to roil regional equity markets and that a potential spillover into the price of oil would agitate consumer-related equities?As it turned out, Egypt remains tense, but the ETFs did exactly what this technical model hoped they would do: Bounce following a pullback ( see Appendix below for explanation and performance data).

Kevin Grewal submits: As global demand for crude oil continues to increase to record levels and supply remains constricted, the price of gasoline continues to itch upwards, passing the $3 per gallon mark in October and giving support to the United States Gasoline Fund (UGA), the PowerShares DB Energy (DBE), the iShares Dow Jones US Oil & Gas Ex Ind

Kevin Grewal submits: As commodity ETFs have witnessed increased investor demand and increased returns over this year, there have many new resource-specific ETFs brought to market and now the United States Commodity Funds plans to introduce three more funds giving exposure to copper, agriculture and metals.

Trader Mark submits: