Gold ETF IAU 10 for 1 stock split (ishares)

BlackRock Announces Share Split of iShares® COMEX® Gold Trust
San Francisco, CA, June 11, 2010—BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that the Board of Directors of BlackRock Asset Management International Inc., sponsor of the iShares® COMEX® Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU/TSX: IGT) (the "Trust") has authorized a 10 for 1 split for shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 21, 2010, payable after the close of trading on June 23, 2010. The Trust shares will begin trading with split-adjusted pricing on the NYSEArca on June 24, 2010. The Trust, which is cross-listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, will commence trading on a split adjusted basis on TSX on June 17, 2010. Post-split shares are expected to be distributed to shareholders' accounts on June 28 2010, and shareholders are expected to see the change in their holdings sometime after June 28, depending upon their brokerage firm's procedures.




The 10-for-1 split will lower the share price and increase the number of outstanding shares. The total value of shares outstanding is not affected by a split.



Hypothetical example of 10-for-1 split:



Period Number of Shares Owned Hypothetical Market Price/Share (U.S.$) Total Value (U.S.$)
Pre-split 100 $120 $12,000
Post split 1,000 $12 $12,000

Shares of the iShares® COMEX® Gold Trust are expected to reflect, at any given time, the price of the gold owned by the Trust, less the Trust's expenses and liabilities. As of June 10, 2010, the Trust had U.S. $3.3 billion in total net assets.

the Declining Dollar - Hedge Your Portfolio (Barrons)

Foreign-Reserve Bingo
By ROBERT FLINT
What investors seek as they exit dollar-denominated assets.



INVESTORS OF ALL STRIPES NEED TO BRACE THEMSELVES for a world in which the U.S. dollar no longer plays the dominant role.Although the greenback will remain the currency of choice in trade and finance for many more years, signs have already emerged that changes are under way.

Governments abroad have grown increasingly skeptical about the dollar as a store of value for their national reserves. China, Russia and others have expressed concern about their dollar-denominated holdings because of the budget deficits the U.S. faces in financing bailout and stimulus measures.
Some countries have taken steps to reduce the proportion of their reserves held in dollar-denominated assets by switching to investments that will hold their value as consumer prices rise.
The U.S. decision announced Wednesday to boost sales of Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, is largely seen as a nod to China, the world's largest holder of U.S. government debt.


The search for alternatives to the greenback, while still in its early stages, will eventually have broad implications. Diversification of foreign-exchange reserves is no longer an issue solely for central banks and monetary authorities.

So where does that leave individual investors? Is there such a thing as a diversification play?

There is, say analysts, but it's more a long-term strategy. The dollar's allure has been tarnished, but any significant shift away from U.S. assets by central banks will take years.

"It won't happen overnight," says Andrew Busch, global foreign-exchange strategist at BMO Capital in Chicago.

There's still no other country or region that can match the liquidity and depth of U.S. capital markets. The dollar will continue to play a key role in the placement of foreign-exchange reserves until a viable alternative emerges. So far, there's been no evidence of any officially sanctioned dumping of the dollar.

One strategy for investors would be to mimic central banks and slowly move more of their holdings into non-dollar-denominated assets. The euro is most obvious option, at least in the short run, says Busch.

James Trippon, editor of the China Stock Digest, suggests investors can position themselves to benefit from inflation and a declining dollar through commodity-related plays in energy, metals or even foodstuffs. Australia and New Zealand, with commodity-based economies, stand to benefit as the world economy heals and growth speeds up again in China.
Another option would be American depositary receipts of Chinese corporations in the energy, banking or insurance sectors, Trippon says.

For private investors as well as central banks, it amounts to slow and careful diversification away from the dollar. Coping with a less-than-almighty dollar is an unnerving prospect for many Americans, but one they are bound to face.




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Investing in Commodities (from WSJ)

Commodity-Based Funds Earning Favor
Corn or Oil in ETFs
Can Add Stability,
But Ratios Matter
By IAN SALISBURY
August 14, 2008; Page C13

Investors have taken to commodity exchange-traded funds, but choosing a fund isn't easy: Design hurdles mean seemingly similar funds can have quite different holdings -- and different returns.

Most stock indexes weight companies based on market capitalization, or the total value of their shares outstanding. This calculation isn't feasible for commodities, so index designers have to estimate or take an entirely different approach -- and they come up with widely varying results.

To take one example: The iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust has 78% of its assets in energy and just 2% in precious metals, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

As a result, this ETF has shot the lights out over the past year, gaining 40% despite the recent decline in oil prices. By contrast, the Greenhaven Continuous Commodity Index ETF has 47% of its assets in agriculture and just 18% in energy. It's up 2% since hitting the market in late January.

Other commodity index funds have splits that lie between these two extremes.

Commodity ETFs and their close cousins, exchange-traded notes, have been gaining traction with investors, collecting more than $40 billion since the first one hit the market in 2004, according to Morningstar Inc.

Commodity Cushion

As events this summer have shown, prices for goods like oil and corn can surge even as stocks plunge. Many financial advisers now believe keeping a small portion of investors' assets in commodities can smooth a portfolio's overall volatility.

"Most people use commodity ETFs as part of their asset allocation" plans, says Kevin Rich, managing director at Deutsche Bank AG, one of the companies that offers commodity ETFs. "We see people with 1%, 3%, 5% in commodities."

While it's relatively easy to decide what to include in commodity indexes -- usually crude oil, agricultural goods and precious metals -- it's difficult to come up with a rationale for how much to include of each one. It's not as simple as with stock indexes, which typically go by market value of the companies.

One solution is to estimate how much of a commodity is produced a year. The purest production-oriented approach is taken by the S&P GSCI Index, which bases weightings on average production levels for 24 commodities over a five-year period.

"Commodities aren't like equities," says Eric Kolts, director of commodity indexes at Standard & Poor's. "The closest you can get to market capitalization is what we do with production."

Two Barclays PLC investments, $1.1 billion iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust and $292 million iPath S&P GSCI Total Return ETN, are based on this benchmark. A drawback for many investors, however, is that this method puts a big focus on oil, which represents more than 70% of the index.

Lowered Energy

For that reason, two other investments, one from Barclays and one from Deutsche Bank, have attracted more money from investors by tweaking their methods to reduce energy exposure. The $3.9 billion iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return ETN bases weightings on production and trading volumes but caps energy exposure to 33% once a year in January. It's currently drifted up to about 36%. (News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Co. publishes The Wall Street Journal.)

The $3 billion PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund is based on production and inventory levels, but designers also "redistributed some of the exposure from energy into metals and specifically precious metals" to make it more diversified, according to a spokeswoman.

About 61% of the ETF is in energy, according to the Morgan Stanley report.

Finally, the above-mentioned $29 million Greenhaven Continuous Commodity Index ETF puts the entire focus on diversification, doing away altogether with the notion that the fund ought to reflect a commodity's role in the economy. It weights 17 commodities, including gold, orange juice, and crude oil, equally.

Because so many individual commodities are agricultural, these represent almost half the index, according to Morgan Stanley.

Write to Ian Salisbury at ian.salisbury@dowjones.com