Four Defensive ETFs You're Not Considering, But Should

If Wednesday's market action reminds investors of two things it is this pair of ominous notes: Europe is still an epic problem for global financial markets and as a result, it's still a fine idea to establish a few defensive positions. Playing defense at the sector level often boils down to investing in consumer staples, health care, telecom or utilities stocks and ETFs. All fine choices as returns this year have indicated, but all are known quantities. Have a look at these ETFs that aren't exactly high-beta that have been holding up nicely in 2011. PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite ETF PBP: The premise here is quite simple: PBP invests about 80% of its assets, sometimes more, in S&P 500 stocks and then writes covered calls on those positions. That leads to an expense ratio that's kind of high at 0.75% and PBP hasn't exactly throttled the S&P 500, but it's a decent conservative play that doesn't grab a ton of press. PowerShares Buyback Achievers ETF PKW: Another fund with a niche focus, the PowerShares Buyback Achievers ETF tells us there's something to companies that repurchase their own stock. The ETF was up almost 10% year-to-date heading into Wednesday and that's a lot better than what the S&P 500 offers. Top holdings include Dow components Wal-Mart WMT, Hewlett-Packard HPQ and IBM IBM. Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF LVOL: The Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF made its debut in May and has used its low volatility approach to beat the S&P 500 by a couple of percentage points. Investors have noticed as LVOL has hauled in more than $29.1 million in assets under management. Top-10 holdings in the 107-stock ETF include Wal-Mart, IBM, Apple AAPL and Johnson & Johnson JNJ. First Trust Value Line Dividend Index Fund FVD: No surprise that a dividend ETF would make the list, but even though it has over $348 million in AUM, FVD is nowhere close to being the most popular dividend ETF on the market. Someone ought to take note because FVD, which is home to 163 stocks, has easily outpaced the S&P 500 this year with a 5% gain. Utilities and consumer staples account for almost 42% of FVD's sector weight. Bull case: Believe it or not, this environment isn't all that bad for these ETFs. It's certainly less bad for them than high-beta fare. Bear case: The bear case for these ETFs might mean a bull case for the rest of the market, though PKW and LVOL should be durable regardless of circumstances.