VanEck JP Morgan EM Local Currency Bond ETF

EMLC

Market cap $4.94B

Retirees chasing income have started paying attention to a corner of the bond market most U.S.

As we navigate the first quarter of 2026, advisor interest is increasingly shifting toward traditional hedges and quality-oriented products. VanEck, a pioneer in thematic and hard-asset investing, has seen its lineup take center stage as market participants grapple with a shifting macro environment.

Today's market environment is pushing investors to look beyond traditional fixed income for higher yield. VanEck's income-focused ETFs provide access across asset classes.

Normalizing yield curves, easing monetary policy in the U.S., and a weakening dollar are just a few macro factors that hit the bond markets in 2025. The latter carved a path for emerging market (EM) bond strength last year, giving them the “wow” factor relative to their fixed income peers.

The VanEck J.P. Morgan EM Local Currency Bond ETF receives a "Sell" rating for long-term investors due to steady capital decay and currency risk. EMLC offers broad emerging market sovereign debt exposure with moderate credit and interest rate risk. Despite outperforming developed market bond benchmarks, EMLC has underperformed inflation and suffered a 48% price decline since inception.

Prices for raw materials have rocketed higher so far this year, outperforming the rest of the major asset classes by a wide margin through Friday's close (Jan. 23), based on a set of ETFs.

EMB and other EM bond ETFs are gaining favor as investors seek yield and insulation from US-EU trade tensions tied to the Greenland dispute.

Echoing the strong run in foreign equities in 2025, bond markets ex-US are also having a good year. Using a set of ETFs to track the major international buckets of fixed-income securities shows across-the-board outperformance over a popular US benchmark through Wednesday's close (Dec. 17).

VanEck has consistently delivered some of the best funds that help investors diversify into untapped and new markets.

When it comes to equities exposure, U.S. large-caps continue to garner the lion's share of capital allocations. However, emerging markets (EM) could finally be in the throes of a comeback.