Yesterday I took at a look at areas of weakness in the market such as healthcare, REITs & Utilities, but there really is always a bull somewhere (even more so today with opportunities for US investors to reap rewards from the efforts of other countries).  IN fact, most of the best opportunities for investment continue to be in markets other than US.  That is certainly illustrated in the charts of the ETFs.  I don’t have time to look at all the bullish charts in this post but wanted to share a few that I think are interesting right now.

With a focus on mining, Canada (Australia and South Africa too) continues to be a source of strength.  Two funds that I track, Central Canada Fund (CEF) & the Ishares Canada fund (EWC) continue to move to new highs.  CEF is concentrated in gold and silver plays while EWC is a bit more diversified and includes some financial names in addition to the mining companies.

CEF is one of the high flyers of the ETF world and recently broke out from a bullish triangle formation with good volume.  If you missed the initial breakout, it may come in some and offer a better price point.  Buying up here is asking for trouble.

When you think of Canada, you think of Materials and Energy plays, but EWC is a well diversified ETF with materials and energy making up 45% of the fund, banks 20% and insurance 10%.  According to ETF Connect , the Royal Bank of Canada is the largest holding at around 6.5% of the fund.  Technically, the chart of the fund looks great here, having recently broken out and consolidating quietly.

The Asia Pacific region is providing some interesting opportunities through the Ishares Pacific (ex Japan) (EPP) , Ishares Japan (EWJ) and the China Fund (CHN) funds.

While EPP is heavily weighted towards financials (nearly 50%), the top holding is the large Australian miner BHP Billiton (BHP) which represents around 7.5% of the fund.  The stock has been surging and recently broke out to a new all time high.

It should be noted that the top holding of the Ishares Japan fund is Toyota Motor (TM), an ADR trading on the NYSE (represents around 5.5% of the fund).  If you like a little more risk in exchange for more reward, this is a stock that broke out recently from a nice looking consolidation.

Many other countries look outstanding, however many are overextended.  Brazil (BZF, EWZ) and India (IFN, IIF) continue to look strong despite big run ups.  I’ll cover these opportunities in greater detail in a future post.   Too many charts, too little time.  Until next time…  

Running through over a hundred of the most popular ETF charts provides a good way to gauge where in the market the money is flowing in and out of.  Aside from the obvious strength in commodities, there are other notable trends in the market.  The continued strength in emerging markets, (which I’ll cover tomorrow - will it ever end?), the free fall in healthcare/biotech, the potential bottoming of utilities and the emerging weakness in REITs and Telecom/Networking.

The REITS look like they’re on the verge of collapse, as the two major REIT ETFs (IYR and ICF) recently took out support of their upward trend lines and support of the 50 day moving average.

Tech, particulary telecom and networking are doing their best to hold up here, but both the telecom holders trust (TTH) and the Ishares Networking fund (IGN) look to be in trouble from my viewpoint.

Anything and everything related to the health industry has been hit hard in the past few weeks.  Here’s a look at two biotech ETFs (Biotech Ishares IBB & Powershares Dynamic Biotech ICF).  While biotechs may get a little relief bounce soon, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  The same could be said for healthcare (see the Ishares Healthcare fund IYH) and pharmaceuticals (see the Pharma Holders Trust PPH) 

Utilities continue to lag the market and they too have some room left to run to the downside.  They may test key levels of support in the coming days.  The Utilities Holders Trust (UTH) has support in the 105 - 107 range, while the Utilities SPDR (XLU) fund is approaching support around 30.

All is not bearish in ETF land.  Commodities continue to do well (although I wouldn’t be making large bets up here) and select emerging markets continue to forge ahead.  I’ll have a look at some bullish ETF Charts in round II tomorrow.  Stay tuned!