SPDR ETFs, the exchange-traded funds (ETF) platform of State Street Global Advisors, has rolled out a new bond ETF designed to provide European investors with access to the US short-term, high-yield bond market. The newly launched fund, which is physically replicated, is linked to the Barclays 0-5 Year US High Yield Bond Index, a broad-based benchmark that measures the performance of US dollar-denominated high-yield corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of less than 5 years.

Source, a London-based provider of exchange-traded products, has teamed up once again with alternative asset manager GLG Partners, a subsidiary of Man Group, to launch two new active strategy ETFs on the London Stock Exchange. Focusing on Continental Europe and Asia ex Japan, the Source Man GLG Continental Europe Plus UCITS ETF (MPCE) and Source Man GLG Asia Plus UCITS ETF (MPAS) are based on the same strategy that underlies the firms’ original collaborative effort, the hugely successful Man GLG Europe Plus Source ETF (MPFE).

iShares has expanded its fixed income ETF line-up with the launch of the iShares $ Corporate Bond Interest Rate Hedged UCITS ETF (LQDH) and iShares £ Corporate Bond Interest Rate Hedged UCITS ETF (SLXH) on the London Stock Exchange. The funds are designed to cater for investors who wish to obtain additional yield via corporate bonds, but are concerned about the impact of rising interest rates at a time when uncertainty around central bank monetary policy has seen volatility in yields increase.

NYSE Euronext has announced the launch of the NYSE Diversified High Income Index, a new strategy index measuring the performance of a highly diversified, multi-asset portfolio of high yielding securities. The index has been licensed to UBS to underlie the newly launched NYSE Arca-listed ETRACS Diversified High Income ETN (DVHI). The strategy provides exposure to a basket of 138 publicly traded securities that provide exposure to several different asset classes, sectors and segments across multiple geographies that have historically paid high dividends or distributions.

Institutional demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has increased markedly in recent years, fuelling rapid growth of a product originally geared towards retail investment, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s notes that institutional investors – including even traditional mutual fund managers – now hold over half of all US ETF shares and that the products are increasingly attracting flows that once would have gone into traditional mutual funds or to hedging vehicles such as futures and swaps.

Commodity ETFs rallied sharply higher on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve said it would leave its quantitative easing programme unchanged, a policy largely seen as supporting commodity prices. Most risk assets reacted positively to the announcement, but gold and oil, in particular, experienced a strong bounce, with the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), the world’s largest gold ETF, adding 4.5% and the United States Oil Fund (USO), the word’s largest oil ETF, adding 2.4%.

The First Trust Value Line Dividend Index ETF (FVD) recently celebrated its tenth anniversary – and it did so in style, posting a 10-year performance number that trumped the S&P 500 Index by 2% annually. Ryan Issakainen, ETF Strategist at First Trust, said: “While the field has become more crowded over the past few years, FVD has distinguished itself for over a decade as an effective tool for investors seeking below-average volatility with above-average dividends.”

Barclays has introduced two new types of indices that use liquid Treasury futures contracts to replicate the interest rate duration exposure of a Barclays fixed income index. The indices have been designed for investors seeking to adjust the duration of their fixed income benchmarks while preserving the broad coverage and diversification of their existing fixed income investment set.

FTSE, a leading global index provider, has unveiled a suite of indices designed to track the performance of baskets of securities weighted so that each security contributes equally to overall portfolio risk. Called the FTSE Global Equal Risk Contribution (ERC) Index Series, the new indices fit within FTSE’s range of alternative indices (often dubbed ‘smart beta’), which break the relationship between market capitalisation and index weight.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM), the investment management division of Deutsche Bank, has rolled out eight new fixed income ETFs this month in an assertive effort to position itself as a leading European provider in the fixed income space. Simon Klein, DeAWM’s Head of Exchange Traded Product Sales, EMEA and Asia, said: “The development of the fixed income space is still nascent, but we’re well placed to be a leading provider of fixed income ETFs as this area of the market develops.”