Buy, Sell or Hold Update: Brazil ETF Featured Monday Soars as Much as 31% in Three Trading Days

By William Patalon III
Executive Editor
Money Morning/The Money Map Report

The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that was the topic of the popular “Buy, Sell or Hold” feature on Monday, surged as much as 31% in the first three days of this week.

The shares, which closed Friday at $29.94, traded as high as $37.25 in late afternoon trading yesterday (Wednesday) – at that point representing an aggregate gain of 31% in the week’s first three days.

The ETF ended yesterday’s trading session at $35.89, an increase of $2.31 per share, or 6.88% for the day. At that closing price, EWZ shares had logged a gain of $4.05 a share, or 14%, since Money Morning Contributing Editor Horacio Marquez recommended the ETF in his Monday column.

Marquez is also the editor of the newly created Money Moves Alert trading service.

“Brazil is going to be a global powerhouse,” Marquez said in an interview yesterday. “Where else can you invest directly in the global oil industry, as you can here with Petrobras (PBR)? In fact, they play in all the key commodity sectors, including iron ore” – a key ingredient in steelmaking, by virtue of the Brazil-based Vale (ADR NYSE: RIO), formerly known as Companhia Vale Rio.

Brazil has $200 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, is conservatively managed, has kept its interest rates well above its inflation rate, has seen its debt get upgraded to investment grade, and recently allowed its currency – the Real – to depreciate, a move that will transform the country into an exporting force, he said.

Marquez isn’t the only Money Morning editor with bullish views on Brazil. Martin Hutchinson, a veteran international banker who is a regular columnist for Money Morning, detailed Brazil’s debt-rating increase back in May, penned a two-part series on the so-called “BRIC” economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) back in August, listed six of that country’s most-alluring profit plays in a report that just ran on Friday and then included Brazil as one of four “safe haven” markets in a column he wrote yesterday. [To read Marquez’s full “Buy, Sell or Hold” column on Brazil, please click here. To read Hutchinson’s “Safe Haven” column, which mentions Brazil and three other promising overseas markets, please click here. Both reports are free of charge.]

[Editor’s Note:One of Money Morning’s strengths is ferreting out profit opportunities by observing global money flows. Whether its spotlighting safe-haven markets, or identifying which commodity class is poised for a run to record highs, money flows point the way. Our newest service – The Money Moves Alert – is designed to highlight profit plays for subscribers before they become obvious to the investing masses. Check out our latest report on this profit phenomenon. Marquez is the editor of the newly created Money Moves Alert trading service]

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About the Author

Before he moved into the investment-research business in 2005, William (Bill) Patalon III spent 22 years as an award-winning financial reporter, columnist, and editor. Today he is the Executive Editor and Senior Research Analyst for Money Morning at Money Map Press.

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