Van Eck Grabs 6 Top HOLDRs off Merrill Lynch

By Michael Johnston:Van Eck announced last week a partnership with Merrill Lynch that may ultimately lead to the conversion of several HOLDRs products to soon-to-be-launched Market Vectors ETFs. As part of the agreement, Van Eck will introduce six new ETFs that maintain the same tickers as the existing HOLDRs but that will be part of the Market Vectors family of ETFs. Van Eck said it expects the exchange to be launched in the third quarter of this year and consummated in the fourth quarter.

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,591.50, EUR 1,221.98 and GBP 1,062.42 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,582.50, EUR 1,216.37and GBP 1,065.30 per ounce.Both gold and silver rose by almost 1% yesterday. Gold rose $12.20 and closed at $1,593.30/oz. Silver closed at $29.15/oz.

By Tom Lydon: Van Eck's Market Vectors has launched a new exchange traded fund that targets a virtually untapped area of the high yield market. Based on other funds currently trading on the U.S. market, this area of high yield is underrepresented in many portfolios.

Tom Lydon submits: Van Eck Global, the name behind the Market Vectors ETFs, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a passive ETF based on master limited partnerships (MLPs).

By Tom Lydon: As advisors and investors are beginning to expand their fixed-income allocations and create layered levels of risk in an investment portfolio, Van Eck Global, the money manager behind the Market Vectors exchange traded fund line, on Wednesday launched a new emerging markets high yield bond fund to meet the growing demand for alternative fixed-income investments.

By Ron Rowland:Van Eck Global rolled out six Market Vector ETFs on December 21, 2011 that began trading as newly-listed issues on NYSE Arca. The new ETFs will use the same ticker symbols as six similar Merrill Lynch HOLDRS products that were delisted the prior day.

ETF Database submits: As the world’s developing economies have emerged as the clear drivers of global GDP growth, interest in BRIC economies has skyrocketed. Few markets have shown as much promise as China, which recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy and seems poised to gain ground rapidly on the U.S.

Tom Lydon submits: Choices, choices, choices. Emerging market ETFs are no longer just broad, all-purpose plays. There are sector funds, single country funds and, yes, there are still the broad funds. What you choose to own, though, depends on you.