Pillars of Russian Strength: The Ruble and Yandex NV

Russia' ruble, which had seen its biggest one-day decline against the U.S. dollar in a year Monday, rallied on Tuesday. Simultaneously, Yandex NV raised enough money in a U.S. initial public offering so as to make the company twice as valuable to Google, relative to earnings, according to Bloomberg. Yandex NV owns Russia's most popular search engine and raised $1.3 billion in its U.S. IPO, according to Bloomberg. The Russian company sold 52.2 million shares at $25, giving the company a value of $8 billion. That means that Yandex NV is worth twice as much as Google relative to earnings. Google currently trades at roughly 13 times expected 2012 earnings Yandex will be listed on the NASDAQ under symbol YNDX. The Russian ruble may have rallied due to an increase in oil prices. Oil is one of Russia's chief exports. Russian exporters must also pay nearly $7 billion in taxes this week, perhaps causing the companies to sell the dollar in order to acquire the rubles to pay the tax. Traders looking to play Russian strength may wish to consider Market Vector Russian ETF Trust RSX and CurrencyShares Russian Ruble Trust XRU. RSX attempts to return a value corresponding to the general strength of the Russian economy, while XRU tries to return a value in line with the value of the Russian currency.