State Street Global Advisors' SDPRs offer the only two Japanese equity ETFs based on this index series. The annual rebalancing of the Russell/Nomura Japanese stock indexes just concluded, resulting in more than 30% turnover rates for each series in the benchmarking family. The Russell/Nomura Total Value Index had 212 deletions and 176 additions, while the Russell/Nomura Total Growth Index had 270 deletions and 136 additions. Those changes represented capitalization turnover ratios of 30.9% for value, and 33.3% for growth, among the highest-ever index rebalancing for the Russell Investments and Nomura Securities' Japanese equity benchmarks since their launch in 1981. There are Japanese stock exchange-traded funds from Barclays Global Investors' iShares family, Northern Trust's NETS and from WisdomTree Investments. However, State Street Global Advisors' SDPRs offers the only two Japanese equity ETFs based on this index series: the SPDR Russell/Nomura PRIME Japan ETF (NYSE Arca: JPP) and the Russell/Nomura Small Cap Japan ETF (NYSE Arca: JSC). JPP ...

Ever wonder why international markets perform differently from the U.S. (and each other)? Just look at the sectors.

People talk a lot about the interaction between the political economy of nation states and the performance of their markets. And it is certainly true that different countries are often at different points in the economic cycle. That's one of the reasons why diversifying overseas adds low-correlated returns to a portfolio.

But there's another reason for those differences: sectors. The sector breakdowns between regions and countries differ widely, and examining those breakdowns can help you understand why one market zigs while another market zags.

Of course, the tail wags the dog here: The sector breakdown is reflective of each region's economy, and vice versa. But sectors offer one easy way to gain insight into how and why one economy and market performs differently from another.

U.S. Vs. The Developed World

If you

...

Ever wonder why international markets perform differently from the U.S. (and each other)? Just look at the sectors.

People talk a lot about the interaction between the political economy of nation states and the performance of their markets. And it is certainly true that different countries are often at different points in the economic cycle. That's one of the reasons why diversifying overseas adds low-correlated returns to a portfolio.

But there's another reason for those differences: sectors. The sector breakdowns between regions and countries differ widely, and examining those breakdowns can help you understand why one market zigs while another market zags.

Of course, the tail wags the dog here: The sector breakdown is reflective of each region's economy, and vice versa. But sectors offer one easy way to gain insight into how and why one economy and market performs differently from another.

U.S. Vs. The Developed World

If you

...