The idea of supporting the “green” movement just got easier. While environmentally-conscious ETFs like solar and wind already exist in today’s market, Global X Fund has just launched the first ever lithium ETF which is a main resource to renewable energy.

Global X Lithium ETF (LIT: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) will invest in large lithium battery manufacturers, as well as lithium mining and refining companies, according to the press release. LIT will track the Solactive Global Lithium Index on the NYSE Arca. Two of the largest holdings from the US are FMC Corporation and Rockwood Holdings.

Jose C. Gonzalez, COO of Global X Funds, states, “Lithium is the lightest metal. When processed it has the capacity to store electric energy more efficiently than any other material. Efficient electric energy storage is necessary for all green energy products and the computer systems that control them " like electric cars, solar, wind and water power.”

The automobile industry has a major impact on the value of both platinum and palladium ETFs. The precious metals are both used in the manufacturing of catalytic converters within automobiles.

The demand for automobiles is down considerably over the past few months, which has put a dent in the recent values of platinum and palladium. ETFS Physical Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) grew during the first four months of the year to all-time highs in April; however, since that time the funds have dropped approximately 13% and 20%, respectively.

Major countries such as the US, Japan, and China have experienced dips in automobile sales, especially in the second quarter of 2010. TheStreet.com reports that US sales declined 10.8% to 982,000 units in June. Sales were well over a million units in previous months. Despite slow automobile production, analysts remain optimistic that there will be a favorable turnaround in the fourth quarter as consumers are motivated by year end incentives.

The chart below illustrates the sharp decline PPLT has suffered since it peaked in April.

The largest gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News), has taken a moment to catch its breath after hiking up the charts for most of the year.

Fear of deflation was the main factor in a recent four-day decline of approximately 2% for GLD, according to MarketWatch. Looking back on the past four weeks, GLD is down 4.33%. Despite the recent pullback in GLD, long-term trends still look strong for the leading precious metal. GLD has increased more than 24% since last year at this time and is up approximately 8% since the beginning of 2010.

The chart below shows the rare decline in GLD over the past month.

Assets continued to flow into U.S. exchange-traded funds during the month of June thanks to bond and gold ETFs. June is the fifth straight month that assets have flowed into ETFs to keep the trend rising.

Taxable-bond ETFs attracted the most assets with $4.7 billion for June, according to the press release. Two of the most popular ETFs also saw large inflows. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) and SPDR Gold Shares (GLD: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) gathered $2.6 billion and $2.1 billion for the month, respectively.

Though large and mid-cap funds enjoyed net asset inflows, it was the small-cap funds that suffered substantial outflows in June, according to the Morningstar data. In the end, there was nearly $10 billion of net assets that flowed into US ETFs during the month, which brought the year-to-date growth total to $34 billion at the midway point of 2010.

AdvisorShares, an actively managed ETF adviser, will soon be introducing a new actively managed, short ETF to the market. The launch of the new product will not be a solo effort as AdvisorShares has teamed up with Ranger Alternative Management to develop the ETF.

The press release describes the new fund’s investment strategy to be short only with an all-cap domestic equity approach. There is no reported launch date as the fund is still in the development stage.

CEO and Founder of AdvisorShares, Noah Hamman comments on matter by saying, “Ranger Alternative Management has an excellent track record using their proprietary forensic accounting approach to identify domestic equity stocks that are expected to underperform. We believe investment advisors are seeking the ability to hedge their long domestic equity exposure without worrying about compounding, derivatives or commodities.”

Other notable actively managed ETFs from AdvisorShares are the Dent Tactical ETF (DENT: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News) and newly launched Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV: Profile, Quote, Advanced Chart, News).