On Thursday (3/11/2010) Direxion added six new funds to its menu, giving investors leveraged and inverse opportunities in the BRIC countries, India, and the semiconductor sector.  This was Direxion’s second batch of new ETFs this year.  Back in February they launched two leveraged and inverse short-term Treasury ETFs.

The newest ETFs are

• Direxion Daily BRIC 2x Bull (BRIL) (summary)
• Direxion Daily BRIC 2x Bear (BRIS) (summary)
• Direxion Daily India 2x Bull (INDL) (summary)
• Direxion Daily India 2x Bear (INDS) (summary)
• Direxion Daily Semiconductor 3x Bull (SOXL) (summary)
• Direxion Daily Semiconductor 3x Bear (SOXS) (summary)

For those who haven’t heard the term, BRIC refers to the four largest emerging market nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China.  BRIL and BRIS  provide long and short coverage, respectively, to the BNY Mellon BRIC Select ADR Index with 200% daily leverage.  INDL and INDZ do likewise for the Indus India Index.

These four will be the first Direxion ETFs to offer anything less than 300% daily leverage.  Why they are doing so is unclear.  As we’ve said before, people who want to use…

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that American’s net worth is on the rise.  Overall, households have gained 1.3% to a total of $54.2 trillion, a slight gain for the fourth quarter.  It appears that a recovering economy and rising stock market are behind the gain.  This is the third quarter in a row of positive growth in American’s net worth, and was smaller than the previous two growth periods.

Prosecutors in Italy are seeking to ban Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) division Merrill Lynch from pursuing lucrative government contracts with the Mediterranean nation.  This is based on derivative swap losses that the investment institution’s performed for Milan, Italy’s financial capital.  According to DOF Online, the losses stand in the neighborhood of $1.19 billion (870 million Euros) out of a total $2.28 billion (1.68 billion Euros) deal.  After the Goldman Sachs debacle in Greece, it would appear that governments in Europe are beginning to grow wary of large financial investment institutions like B.of.A.

British Airways (LON:BAY) union has announced it’s members will go on strike from March 20^th to 23^rd, and from March 27^th to March 31^st.  The union will not continue the strike over Easter.  The airline is already hampered by…

The Gold Report has again interviewed newsletter writer and commentator Lou Paquette, who launched the Emerging Growth Stocks website in 1995 to provide investors and speculators with a unique alternative to what he saw was a growing problem with corporate governance and conflict of interest on Wall Street. He is not counting out the U.S. dollar quite yet as the euro waivers. He also believes that there is no longer necessarily a seasonality regarding gold and gold stocks.

The Gold Report: The Olympics have just ended after about six years of preparation, was it worth it for Vancouver and was it worth it for Canada?

Louis Paquette: In terms of good will and sportsmanship—and pure fun—they were a success. Were they worth it in monetary terms? That depends on what you believe a benefit is. There’s been a lot of debate and argument about this, but this is one point that I haven’t seen brought up. That is, people are measuring the benefit—the cost and the benefit by the economic activity that is being generated, the free advertising and the increase in tourism now and later. But the problem is that much of the United States is going through a…