Vanguard and Van Eck Slash ETF Expenses

In the cutthroat world of ETF investing, the firm with the lowest expenses often gathers the most assets.

And thus far in 2012, the costs for owning ETFs have been falling. Fund providers from the Select Sector SPDRs to Vanguard and others have been slashing fees.

Below are the latest changes with Vanguard ETFs, along with their new annual expense ratios:

Vanguard FTSE All World ex-US ETF (NYSEArca: VEU - News) - 0.18%

Vanguard FTSE All World ex-US Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: VSS - News) - 0.28%

Vanguard Total International Stock Fund (NYSEArca: VXUS - News) - 0.18%

Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets Fund (NYSEArca: VWO - News) - 0.20%

Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEArca: VYM - News) - 0.13%

The Market Vectors RVE-Hard Assets Producers ETF (NYSEArca: HAP - News), which is sponsored by Van Eck Global, reduced its annual expense ratio from 0.59% to 0.49%.

According to ETFguide's first quarter data, here are the expense ratio medians for key ETP categories:

Large Cap Stocks - 0.20%

Mid Cap Stocks - 0.25%

Small Cap Stocks - 0.25%

Global & Intl Stocks - 0.53%

Emerging Mkt Stocks - 0.62%

Bonds - 0.20%

Commodities - 0.75%

Currencies - 0.45%

U.S. Industry Sectors - 0.48%

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