US-based investment company Elkhorn Investments has partnered with smart beta specialist Research Affiliates to launch the Elkhorn Fundamental Commodity Strategy ETF (Bats: RCOM). The Bats-listed ETF provides exposure to a broad basket of commodity futures weighted according to momentum and roll yield. Ben Fulton, Founder and CEO of Elkhorn, added: “Commodities are a forgotten asset class in today’s market. As a result, product innovation has lagged that of other asset classes for the better part of a decade. Together with Research Affiliates, we are excited to create a better way for investors to access the broader commodity market in an ETF.”

Commerz Funds Solutions, a division of Frankfurt-based Commerzbank, has launched the ComStage Alpha Dividende Plus UCITS ETF, an actively managed exchange-traded fund primarily investing in European and US equities with high dividend yields. The fund employs a quantitative model that screens stocks based on high momentum, low price-to-earnings ratios (value factor), high profit growth (quality factor), low volatility and finally high dividends. The new ETF trades in euros and has a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.68%.

ETF provider WisdomTree has launched an equity ETF targeting firms considered likely to increase their dividend payouts in the future. The WisdomTree Eurozone Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF (EGRA) has been launched on the London Stock Exchange in euros and British pounds. It tracks WisdomTree’s proprietary in-house Quality Dividend Growth Indices, which uses specific criteria to establish which companies are growing their dividends. The strategy focuses on growth and quality. Viktor Nossek, Director of Research at WisdomTree Europe, said in a statement: “We believe that companies that can grow their earnings also have the greatest potential to raise their dividends.”

The affordability and sustainability of dividends paid by FTSE 350 companies has dropped to its lowest level for seven years, signalling that dividend cuts could be on the horizon. In this environment, income-focused investors might be wise to look to smart beta exchange-traded funds that focus on companies with a strong capacity to maintain dividend payments.

European ETF provider Source has released research suggesting there is a growing need for innovative approaches to income investing that address issues such as the quality and sustainability of dividends. More than 61% of institutional investors anticipate that dividends from UK companies will stay the same or decline this year when compared to 2015, according to survey results of 77 institutional investors. Dr. Chris Mellor, Executive Director, Equity Product Management at Source, commented: “Finding quality stocks that pay attractively consistent dividends is becoming much more challenging. Given this, we teamed up with Research Affiliates, the market leaders in smart beta, to develop a suite of ETFs that addresses this growing issue.”

The Taiwan Stock Exchange has launched a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Taiwan Index Plus (TIP), which will run the exchange’s index businesses. TIP will include the development of new investable products and the maintenance of existing indices. It will also develop the exchange’s business by licensing current and future indices for the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds. Existing indices which will continue to be maintained by TIP include the benchmark TAIEX series, which tracks the market cap-weighted performance of all large cap companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, as well as a range of indices co-compiled with the likes of FTSE, Research Affiliates, and S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Source, a leading European provider of exchange-traded funds, have launched three smart beta income ETFs in collaboration with Research Affiliates. Rob Arnott, Chairman and CEO of Research Affiliates, commented: “Although there are a number of dividend-based indexing strategies on the market, few seek to assure that the stock is attractively priced on measures other than the dividend yield, and even fewer filter to assure that the dividend is sustainable. We believe our extensive research in the smart beta area has allowed us to produce a truly superior way to earn solid and sustainable income from an equity portfolio.”

Invesco PowerShares, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds, today joined Research Affiliates, a pioneer in smart beta strategies, to ring the New York Stock Exchange opening bell to recognise the 10th anniversary of the PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio ETF (PRF), the first fundamental index strategy ETF. The ETF can be considered one of the precursors to the smart beta movement we see in full swing today. “We launched PRF nearly ten years ago on 19 December 2005, which we believe was turning point in providing individual investors broad access to strategies now termed smart beta,” said Dan Draper, Managing Director and Head of Invesco PowerShares.

Van Eck Global, the asset management behind the Market Vectors range of exchange-traded funds, has announced plans to close and liquidate four “quality” equity ETFs. Shares in the ETFs will cease trading on NYSE Arca after market close on 18 September 2015 and will subsequently be de-listed. At odds with industry-wide demand for smart beta and income products, the ETFs have failed to attract significant asset flow since their launch in January 2014, with none of the funds managing to sustain more than $5m or so in assets under management.

Following a 21% fall in China’s Shanghai Composite over the past five days and devaluation of the yuan, now could be an opportune time for contrarian investors and/or those with long investment horizons seeking a target allocation to the world’s second-largest economy to begin to progressively build a position in ETFs exposed to the country’s equity and bond markets. The fundamentals, including vast foreign exchange reserves, a healthy current account surplus, moderate fiscal deficit and plenty of capacity for fiscal and monetary stimulus, certainly suggest that over the long term this may prove astute.