USCF has announced it has registered two new ETFs that aim to provide investors with the long-term return characteristics of a private equity allocation. John Love, president and CEO of USCF, commented: “The new USCF ETFs are intended to make it easy for investors to access private equity-like long-term profiles at a lower price point that traditional private equity investments.”

US financial stocks have helped push the S&P 500 Index to fresh highs this week. ETFs tracking the sector, such as the iShares S&P 500 Financials Sector UCITS ETF (IUFS LN), are up approximately 4.8% this week as the S&P 500 put on 0.9% to hit a record close of 2627.04 on 28 November.

Manulife Investments has launched two new multi-factor ETFs on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The funds are sub-advised by Dimensional Fund Advisors and provide exposure to Canadian and US equities.

BlackRock has expanded its fixed income range with the launch of the iShares Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF (AGGG LN) on London Stock Exchange. The fund provides diversified exposure to investment grade fixed income across currencies, regions and sectors.

ETFs that offer exposure to gold are expected to face headwinds in the coming months, as a number of factors look set to put pressure on the gold price in the near term, according to a new research note from VanEck.

The world’s largest ETF provider, BlackRock, is planning to launch a number of active US equity sector ETFs managed by sophisticated algorithms. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveal the funds will be launched under the brand ‘iShares Evolved’ and will each give exposure to one of seven sectors.

Assets under management (AUM) of ETFs domiciled in Europe reached €622 billion at the end of October, up from €601bn the previous month, according to Thomson Reuters. October saw the addition of €6.6bn in net new assets, meaning the majority of the €20.9bn AUM gain was due to the performance of underlying markets.

Horizons ETFs Management US has entered into a strategic partnership with Cadence Capital Management to develop a series of actively managed ETFs due to launch early in 2018. The first fund will be a US equity strategy that focuses on high-quality companies from the Russell 1000 Index with above average dividend yields.

Guggenheim Investments will close and liquidate the Guggenheim Large Cap Optimized Diversification ETF (OPD US). The fund’s last trading day on the NYSE Arca will be 18 December 2017.

In a move reflecting trends seen in the wider asset management industry – namely the shift from active to passive – the Innovator IBD 50 Fund (FFTY US) has switched from being actively managed to passive index-tracking. The ETF, which launched in April 2015, will now track the IBD 50 Index, which had previously been used as the ETF’s performance benchmark.