Four ETFs For President's Obama's Job Speech

The reality is the employment situation in the U.S. is not good at the moment. August's jobs report says as much and another unfortunate reality is that President Obama's much-anticipated jobs speech on Thursday night will not do much to help the unemployed overnight. That said, if lawmakers can reach some kind of consensus on what it will take to get employers hiring again, there are some ETFs that could benefit over the longer-term. Here are a few to keep an eye on following the President's speech and over the next several months as the folks on Capitol Hill try their best to create jobs so they can stay employed themselves. Guggenheim Solar ETF TAN: We all know that President Obama is a big fan of alternative energy, including solar. The mere fact that the solar industry has a supporter in the White House hasn't been enough to support TAN though. This ETF has one of the worst charts out there and over the past few months when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for this ETF, they did. Still, TAN moves enough on a percentage basis and is now so cheap by price that it at least makes for a good trade. SPDR FTSE/Macquarie Global Infrastructure ETF GII: GII does represent a global play on the infrastructure theme, but about 46% of the ETF's weight is allocated to the U.S. The U.S. is in dire need of infrastructure improvements and this is one area where jobs can be created almost immediately. Expect Obama to make some comments that could prove useful for infrastructure stocks and ETFs. Market Vectors Steel ETF SLX: SLX is a unique combination of the potential that GII also has to benefit from the President's job creation efforts while facing an ugly technical situation much like TAN. If the President wants to gain some favor in the key steel-producing states, most of which are critical toss-up states in the electoral college, saying AND doing something to help U.S. steelmakers would be a wise move. And yeah, it would be good news for SLX, which appears to have found firm support at $50. iShares Dow Jones US Oil Equipment Index Fund IEZ: It probably pains a lot of folks around the White House to admit it, but another reality is that when it comes to private sector job creation, oil services companies have a lot to offer. Just look at Halliburton's HAL recent announcement. Obama may not be the biggest fan of the oil industry, but at this point, his hand is forced and he needs jobs to be created from any sector that will create them. Oil services companies will oblige and with good-paying jobs, too.