By Oliver Smith, portfolio manager at IG.

The US market has been a huge growth area for ETFs and index funds, with falling fees enabling investors to get exposure at a very low cost. More recently a number of new products targeting different parts of the market have been launched in the UK. In this piece we take a look at six of the best US ETFs to consider for your portfolio.

Invesco, the asset manager behind the PowerShares range of ETFs, is rumoured to be in discussions to acquire part of the investment management business of Guggenheim Investments, including the firm’s ETF issuing arm. The deal, if completed, would mark the second major ETF-related acquisition for Invesco this year following the announcement in April that it would be taking control of Europe-based asset manager Source.

US large-cap equity ETFs have recorded gains recently as the S&P 500 Index hit intraday- and closing-high records on 25 July 2017. In a week where 180 of the index’s constituents are reporting their second-quarter results, several companies have delivered better-than-expected earnings, pushing the index to 2,477.08 at the close. ETFs tracking the index, such as the $19.3bn iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (LON: CSPX), have added around 10.7% so far in 2017.

UK companies distributed an all-time record £33.3 billion in dividends in the second quarter, comfortably beating the previous record of £29.1bn set in Q2 last year, according to research from Capita. The dividend windfall highlights the income-generating potential of UK stocks and is likely to enhance the appeal of UK income ETFs to yield-seeking investors.

Invesco PowerShares has launched the PowerShares S&P 500 Minimum Variance ETF (Bats: SPMV), providing exposure to select constituents from the bellwether S&P 500 Index while producing lower volatility characteristics compared to the broader US large-cap equity market.

Five new ETFs and seven new ETNs were listed on London Stock Exchange in May 2017 bringing the total number of ETFs and ETPs listed on the exchange to 903 and 457 respectively. Issuers to launch ETFs/ETPs on the London market during May included Societe Generale, iShares, PowerShares, UBS and Lyxor.

German index provider Solactive has launched a new multi-factor index composed of 50 European stocks based on the value and low volatility premiums. The Solactive Stable Income Europe Index is designed for investors looking for a value and low volatility smart beta concept that puts more emphasis on the role played by free cash flow yield. The index has been built to serve as an underlying reference for index-linked investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

Solactive and B-BRE have launched the Solactive – B-BRE Tel Aviv 125 Low Volatility High Dividends Index, used as the underlying index for a new IBI fund trading on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. The index tracks the performance of 25 shares from the TA-125 Index, the most widely used market capitalisation benchmark index of the Tel Aviv stock exchange, selected for their high dividend and low volatility characteristics.

Invesco Powershares has launched a smart beta factor strategy ETF, based on S&P 500 constituents, on the London Stock Exchange. The PowerShares S&P 500 QVM UCITS ETF (LON: PQVM), which will also list on other European exchanges, employs a multi-factor approach using quality, value and momentum to allocate to companies from the S&P 500. Nicholas Samaran, head of product development, EMEA, PowerShares, said: “A multi-factor methodology helps focus on specific factors but avoids the potential challenges of choosing and timing factors”.

Source, the London-based ETF issuer set to be acquired by Invesco, has announced the forthcoming closure of its FTSE RAFI Equity Income ETF series. In a letter to shareholders, Source advised that the three funds would be terminated on 14 June 2017.