The accompanying table [click to enlarge] includes 19 companies in the ETF Innovators [ETFI] Global Carbon Trading Index along with the prices of seven benchmark commodities and funds. The Carbon Trading Index rallied over the past month along with the overall market, although the gains were less than the overall market and the index has declined by more than 50% in the past six months.
With the launch of AirShares Carbon Fund (ASO) in mid-December, investors have another option to trade the price of carbon with the iPath Global Carbon ETN (GRN) already on the market since early July. As a proxy for the global price of carbon, GRN declined by 3% in the past month and 46% in the past six months compared to a gain of 7% in the past month and a loss of 53% over the past six months for the Carbon Trading Index.
Major energy commodities declined by even more than carbon during the past one and six months, with the U.S. Oil (USO) and Natural Gas (UNG) Funds, which have both declined by more than 15% in the past month and more than 63% in the past six months. Central Appalachian Coal Futures (NYMEX: QL) declined by about 8% in the past month and 56% over the past six months.
The Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy (GEX) and Environmental Services (EVX) ETFs both posted impressive gains over the past month of 25.5% and 18.1%, respectively, with EVX benefiting from a large stake of about 10% in Waste Management (WMI) which rose by 13.5% in the past month. Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) rose by 24.5% in the past month, although the stock is still down by 47.4% in the past six months.
CNX Gas (CXG) posted the biggest loss over the past month of the major companies in the index, declining by about 12% compared to the 9.9% gain for the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY). An analyst from UBS recently downgraded CXG from buy to neutral on valuation concerns and recommended investors look for a lower entry point to buy the stock. However, the analyst was positive on the Company’s fundamentals and boosted his earnings estimate for the year by a penny to $1.55 per share while noting positives such as production growth, a clean balance sheet, consistently favorable operating results, and strong management.
$23.27 (01/01/09)
