By Nitesh Shah, Director of Research, WisdomTree.

Investors in broad commodity ETFs have been well rewarded over the past year with the Bloomberg Commodity Index, a popular benchmark for these strategies, up over 7% since last June. This reflects strengthening commodity fundamentals with global demand still robust and supply tightness evident in some metals. Given the resulting backwardation in some commodities, does an optimised commodity strategy still make sense for investors?

By Aneeka Gupta, Associate Director of Research, WisdomTree.

The slowdown of global ETP flows in June 2018 (50% behind last year’s pace or $30.0 billion) resonated concerns over uncertainty tied to trade wars and ensuing protectionist policies.

Aberdeen Standard Investments has unveiled the SMARTER Beta Multifactor Equity Indices. Covering global, regional, and single-country exposures across developed and emerging markets, the suite includes diversified, high income and ESG offerings. “The new equity indices are purely multifactor in approach as we believe that this approach helps to mitigate the effects of drawdowns relative to equivalent market-capitalisation weighted indices,” said Sean Phayre, global head of quantitative investments at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

By Nitesh Shah, director of research, WisdomTree.

The US appears to want to wage a trade war with the rest of the world. Although some countries are retaliating, we don’t expect most countries to drag themselves down the protectionist route. While global trade maybe damaged, the knock-on impact on global economic growth is likely to be small.

Gold-backed ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows across all regions during June apart from Europe, where very modest net inflows were recorded, according to data from the World Gold Council.

Societe Generale has launched a series of 74 inverse and leveraged ETPs on London Stock Exchange. The product suite provides investors with leveraged daily long and short exposures to commodities, currency pairs and mainstream equity indices.

ETF Securities Australia has reached $1 billion in assets under management, driven, the firm says, by investors seeking easy, transparent and low-cost access to a range of asset classes. Kris Walesby, CEO of ETF Securities Australia, commented, “It is significant that each year Australian investors become more confident and comfortable using ETFs to build their portfolios in a simple and low-cost way.”

Aberdeen Standard Investments has acquired the US operations of ETF Securities. The deal sees Aberdeen Standard take charge of a $2.8bn suite of commodity ETPs while also providing the firm with the platform and expertise to launch their own strategies within the ETF wrapper. Chris Demetriou, CEO-Americas at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said, “The expansion of our capabilities into the ETF space shows our commitment to providing the largest range of solutions to our clients in the US.”

Legal & General Investment Management has completed its acquisition of Canvas, the European ETF platform formerly owned by ETF Securities. Mark Zinkula, LGIM CEO, said, “LGIM will now offer a compelling range of ETFs alongside its existing index funds. This was the right opportunity to expand our capabilities and ensure we can meet client demand in this rapidly growing market.”

ETF Securities has announced that its industrial metal ETPs saw net inflows of $9 million during the week ended 9 March 2018. According to the London-based ETP provider, the flows indicate cyclical optimism among investors despite threats of a trade-war dominating news headlines.