Asset class performance has been very mixed so far this year with currency volatility re-awakened and softening global economic data suggesting more difficult times ahead, according to Stephen Cohen, Head of iShares EMEA Investment Strategy & Insight. So what can investors do? Cohen proposes four strategies: overweighting defensive equities and equity income; using developed market equities to access emerging markets; playing Japan via a currency-hedged solution; and mitigating interest rate risk in fixed income and looking at local currency emerging markets debt.

Stoxx, a leading index provider, has introduced the Euro Stoxx 50 BuyWrite 100% Index. The index measures the performance of a buy-write or covered-call strategy based on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, the eurozone’s leading blue-chip equity index. The new index, which has been designed to underlie index-linked financial products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), represents a hypothetical portfolio of a long position in the Euro Stoxx 50 and a sold – or written – call option based on the same index.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has approved BATS Global Markets’ application for its BATS Chi-X Europe platform to be granted Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) status. The new status, which takes effect on 20 May 2013, means BATS will be able to compete against mainstream European exchanges, such as the London Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse, for primary listings of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Standard Life recently revealed plans to enhance its wrap platform aimed at UK financial advisers. One of the key upgrades scheduled over the next 12 months is to deliver improved access to exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The move to enhance access to ETFs is reflective of the growing interest in the product since the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).

Despite price gains across a range of commodities last week, many commodity investors remain deeply cautious and indeed bearish. This has led many to allocate capital to specialist short exchange-traded products (ETPs), which last week enjoyed one of their best ever weeks on record, in terms of asset flows. London-headquartered ETF Securities saw particularly strong inflows into its gold and copper-based products.

Indexing investment giant Vanguard has launched its intermediary business in Hong Kong and revealed plans to expand access to its products to investors throughout Asia. The firm is also set to announce the listing of its first locally domiciled exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Vanguard FTSE Asia ex-Japan Index ETF, in Hong Kong. Vanguard is the third-largest global ETF provider, with $280 billion in ETF assets.

iShares, the exchange traded funds (ETF) platform of BlackRock, has announced the expansion of its European-listed corporate bond suite with the launch of the iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond Financials UCITS ETF (EUCF) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The new ETF provides focused exposure to financial issuers such as banks. Stephen Cohen, Head of Investment Strategy and Insight EMEA at iShares, said: “The new fund provides targeted exposure to this important segment of the bond market in a single trade.”

Half of institutions using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) expect to increase their allocations to the product in the coming year, according to a study from Greenwich Associates. Andrew McCollum, consultant at Greenwich Associates, said: “Although ETFs first entered institutional portfolios mainly as tactical tools and continue to be used in important tactical functions, many institutions now regularly use ETFs as tools for gaining long-term exposures and implementing core investment strategies.”

By David Stevenson – My old Uncle Fred was nothing if not brutally honest – every week I’d pop along to see him in his wonderfully clean care home and tell him my latest idea that would change the world. He’d snort loudly and derisively, draw deeply on the 28th fag of the day and then warn me that just because you think it’s a good idea and say so loud enough regularly, doesn’t mean anyone will actually do anything about it! Uncle Fred’s brutal pessimism still lingers in my mind as I survey the vaulting ambitions of the ETF industry.

Industry veteran Christian Magoon has teamed up with white label exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider Exchange Traded Concepts to launch YieldShares, a newly created ETF sponsor that will focus on income ETFs. The sponsor’s planned debut ETF, the YieldShares High Income ETF (YYY), will track the performance of the ISE High Income Index, an index measuring the performance of 30 closed-end funds, as selected and ranked according to factors designed to result in a portfolio that produces high current income.