S&P Dow Jones, a leading global index provider, has announced the launch of the S&P Long-Term Value Creation (LTVC) Global Index, an index designed to track the performance of companies meeting high standards of financial quality and value creation with a focus on long-term objectives. “Over the past few years, there has been an intensifying investor demand for a benchmark that captures companies that take a long-term approach in making business decisions,” said Alex Matturri, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The launch of the S&P LTVC Global Index is a manifestation of the long-termism concept with an independent and transparent approach.”

ProShares, a US-based provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) has surpassed $1bn in assets under management. The milestone was reached just over two years since the fund’s inception in October 2013. The fund tracks the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, an equal-weighted index of companies within the S&P 500 that have increased their dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. “Investors are attracted to NOBL because the Dividend Aristocrats are quality companies with long-term return potential,” said Michael L. Sapir, co-founder and CEO of ProShares. “Indeed, since its inception, NOBL’s index has outperformed the S&P 500 with lower volatility.”

Alpha Architect, the investment firm behind the MomentumShares brand, has announced the launch of its fourth actively managed ETF: the MomentumShares International Quantitative Momentum ETF (BATS: IMOM). Listed on the BATS Exchange, the new fund applies the firm’s proprietary quality- and price momentum-oriented investment approach to international developed market stocks. Dr Wesley Gray, co-CIO of Alpha Architect, said: “We seek to deliver a high-conviction momentum approach backed by extensive academic and market research and a substantive knowledge of the manner in which irrational investor behaviour creates mispricing.”

First Trust Global Portfolios, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds, has launched a new actively managed ETF targeting high yield fixed income exposure. The First Trust Tactical High Yield UCITS Fund seeks to generate a high level of income while also achieving capital appreciation through investment in US and non-US corporate bonds, convertible bonds and bank loans. The fund is managed by First Trust’s affiliate, First Trust Advisors (FTA).

Recent economic data makes the decision of the Federal Open Market Committee on 16 December less clear-cut than the market seems to think, according to Source, a leading European exchange-traded fund provider. Paul Jackson, Head of Multi-Asset Research at Source, said that, despite the dip in ISM Manufacturing data, he still believes the Fed will raise interest rates. “Our research shows that since the mid-1930s there were only two periods of monetary tightening out of 16 during which investors lost money on the S&P 500. It is important, therefore, to counter misperceptions that a rate hike is necessarily bad news for markets.”

ArthVeda Capital, an Indian asset management firm, has rolled out a suite of eight rules-based value investing indices. The compilations, released under the firms newly launched Smart Alpha Framework, attempt to identify stocks that are trading at discounts to their perceived intrinsic values, producing a portfolio with low risk and high quality characteristics. The indices may be used as a reference for index-linked investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

European-listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products have gathered a record $72.6bn in net new assets as of the end of November 2015. This figure is well above the previous year-to-date (YTD) record of $61.5bn set in 2014. Net inflows of $4.0bn for November marks the 14th consecutive month of positive net inflows in Europe. This came against the backdrop of what was a relatively benign market in terms of performance.

FTSE Russell, a global index provider, has announced changes to the constituents and methodology of the FTSE4Good indices following a semi-annual review of the index series. The December semi-annual review sees 40 companies being added to the FTSE4Good Global Index, while 32 are removed. This reflects the impact of FTSE Russell’s new environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings methodology. Most notable has been the news that Volkswagen AG will be suspended from the indices. The company is deemed to have misled government agencies and consumers over vehicle emissions through the application of software designed to circumvent test requirements.

Markit, the firm behind the iBoxx range of indices, has announced the launch of a rules-based framework designed for the creation of systematic factor-based – or “smart beta” – fixed income indices. Ibrahim Kara, Director and Head of Index Research at Markit, commented: “[The] framework enables us to build indices based on internal and external factor models, while ensuring the replicability of the index. This new offering complements our traditional market value-weighted and liquidity focused indices.” More than $80bn in ETF assets are linked to iBoxx indices, of which more than $4bn is linked to alternatively weighted iBoxx indices.

Vanguard Investments Canada, the Toronto outpost of exchange-traded funds giant Vanguard, has launched two new ETFs on the Toronto Stock Exchange: the Vanguard FTSE Developed All Cap ex North America Index ETF (VIU) and a CAD-hedged version Vanguard FTSE Developed All Cap ex North America Index ETF (CAD-hedged) (VI). Atul Tiwari, managing director of Vanguard Investments Canada, said: “We believe an all-cap approach moves investors closer to complete global market-cap weightings and fuller diversification benefits. Such diversified exposure, at a low-cost, can help investors manage investment risk, enabling them to better weather market swings.”