ETFs

Insiders at Global X confirmed today that their Social Media ETF (Nasdaq: SOCL) has an 8.8 percent weighting in shares of recent IPO Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). The ETF is unique in that it invests only in social media companies. The ETF had $25M in assets as of May 24th.

Other top holdings include LinkedIn (Nasdaq: LNKD).

The ETF has been under pressure recently following the fallout from the Facebook IPO debacle. It is down nearly 7 percent since the Facebook IPO debuted.

MSCI Brazil Index (NYSE: EWZ) June put option implied volatility is at 38, July and September is at 40, December is at 42; above its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data.

Gainers

• iShares MSCI Brazil Index (NYSE: EWZ) up 1.94 percent to $52.11. Brazil is said to ease lending for its three major companies: state-owned Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) and Eletrobras, as well as miner Vale (NYSE: VALE). The move comes due to tighter lending standards abroad.
  
  The BOVESPA is up about 1.4 percent.
  
  
• SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) up 0.42 percent to $152.05. Gold getting a value bid Friday following four sessions of losses as European fears weighted on traders expectations. Now, traders will be looking at a weekly CTFC report to determine whether net long managed money in the precious metal fell by $2.2 billion to $12.2 billion last week.

• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSE: VXX) down 0.89 percent to $20.24. The CBOE VIX is about flat on the session Friday heading into the long holiday weekend in the U.S. Lower volumes on the market might lead to some swings throughout the session.
  
  
• United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) down 2.92 percent to $18.27. Nat gas seeing some pullback following two-days of advances. Following a 9 percent advance last week, the commodity is flattish this week heading into the long weekend as traders are a little nervous with prices approaching the highest levels seen since February. Stockpiles are still near record highs and the outlook for next week calls for milder weather.

Trouble in Greece may be getting all the headlines, but bond king Bill Gross of Pimco thinks the real elephant in the room is China. Today he said he thinks China may cause a far bigger headache as growth slows.

Earlier this week, HSBC's Flash China PMI came in at 48.7, well below analyst expectations. HSBC PMI measures manufacturing in the private industry in China. A reading above 50 signals positive growth, but it has been seven months since China PMI hit those levels, causing concern that the slowdown in China is worse than previously thought.

Bill Gross manages the Total Return EFT (NYSE: BOND).

After years in the doldrums, natural gas prices (NYSE: UNG) have mounted a comeback in recent weeks, but that comeback isn't without its challenges. According to many in the industry, the biggest challenge to higher natural gas prices is coal.

7B bcf of natural gas is being used in the U.S. power industry in place of coal, according to Barclays Capital. The major reason for the switch is due to lower prices of natural gas, which is just coming off of 10 year lows. However, as prices rise to levels where coal becomes attractive again, utilities are switching back. Many utilities have limited storage space for coal, and are forced to burn it as storage space is depleted.

The flip-flopping is creating a volatile market for natural gas. UNG, an ETF that tracks the spot price of natural gas, is down today after the futures price of natural gas fell. Natural gas futures flirted with $2.8 earlier in the week, but have since dropped just under $2.60.