Scientific Beta, a smart beta index provider and a commercial venture of EDHEC Risk Institute, has announced the launch of the Scientific Beta Low Carbon Multi-Beta Multi-Strategy Indexes. Developed in collaboration with the South Pole Group, a sustainability consultant, the indices seek to reduce the carbon footprint of equity investments by as much as 80% while simultaneously being able to create more than 50% additional value in the medium term. Maximilian Horster, Director Financial Industry at South Pole Group, commented: “We are delighted to share our expertise with ERI Scientific Beta to produce low-carbon versions of their highly respected multi-smart factor indices. The combination of low-carbon emissions and state-of-the-art smart factor indices is a compelling opportunity for investors globally.”

Source, a leading European provider of exchange-traded funds, has launched two new funds on the London Stock Exchange providing targeted exposure to the financial services and real estate sectors of the S&P 500 equity index. The Source Financial Services S&P US Select Sector UCITS ETF (XFNS) and the Source Real Estate S&P US Select Sector UCITS ETF (XRES) each track the performance of their relevant S&P Select Sector Capped 20% Index. Weightings are based on market capitalisation, with individual constituents capped at 20% to ensure UCITS-compliance.

Exchange traded fund provider ProShares has launched the ProShares Managed Futures Strategy ETF (BATS: FUT) to replace the ProShares Managed Futures Strategy (FUTS) in a bid to generate greater investor appeal by providing active management and a more efficient tax-structure. Managed futures strategies attempt to identify price trends in the futures markets, and can establish either long or short positions across asset classes such as commodities, currencies and fixed income to capture enhanced returns. FUT uses a risk-weighting methodology, applied at each monthly rebalancing period, which involves optimising the portfolio to ensure each commodity, currency, and fixed income position contributes an equal amount of estimated risk.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset manager behind the SPDR range of exchange-traded funds, has launched 11 fixed income ETFs on the Deutsche Börse Xetra. The funds, comprising core US Treasury, US corporate, Euro government and Euro corporate bond exposures, are linked to Barclays indices and provide tools for investors looking to target particular segments of the yield curve. Alexis Marinof, EMEA head of SPDR ETFs commented: “Whilst we continue to help investors gain exposure to more complex and hard to access segments of the market, these latest launches support their demand for low cost solutions for their core portfolio.”

BMO Global Asset Management has rolled out four new exchange-traded funds on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx). The funds seek to broaden the scope of ETFs available to local investors, which have thus far tended to be fairly homogeneous and largely focused on China-based exposures. BMO made its ETF debut in Hong Kong in November 2014 with the introduction of three funds structured to help address the demand for income and growth and access to the region’s robust financial sector. Its latest ETFs build on this platform by providing investors with access to important international exposures, including the Nasdaq 100, Asia Pacific real estate, and Japanese and European equities. The latter two being USD hedged.

Charles Schwab, a low cost broker, has unveiled the Schwab ETF OneSource 2016 ETF Industry Outlook, an interactive microsite that explores the ETF topics and trends that will be most important to investors and advisors in the year ahead. Heather Fischer, Vice President of ETF Platform Management at Charles Schwab, commented: “The Schwab ETF OneSource 2016 ETF Industry Outlook is a dynamic collaboration among Schwab ETF OneSource participants designed to shed light on the ETF landscape and provide investors with practical insights about ETF investing in today’s market environment.”

As El Niño fades, La Niña weather conditions look increasingly likely to emerge later in the year, according to research from exchange-traded products issuer ETF Securities. The London-based commodities specialist notes that La Niñas that reach a “medium” strength by northern hemisphere winter tend to help the production of grains, coffee and cocoa and so a La Niña starting in winter 2016/17 could be price negative. Nitesh Shah, Director & Commodities Strategist at ETF Securities, said: “Looking at the crop cycle and weather impacts at different times of the year in various geographies, we believe there is a logical reason why prices should rise or fall in a winter La Niña. We believe that if a winter La Niña 2016 is confirmed, there is good reason to short wheat, corn, soybeans, coffee and cocoa and go long sugar.

Global asset manager and exchange traded fund provider BMO Asset Management has added to its smart beta range with the launch of two new currency-hedged low volatility funds. The ETFs are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and provide a solution to investors looking to navigate choppy markets and work by applying higher weights to constituents with lower historical betas (a measure of the firm’s sensitivity to broad market returns). “These new listings build on our successful suite of low volatility ETFs and are structured to help manage the highs and lows of the markets,” said Kevin Gopaul, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President, BMO Asset Management.

Source, a leading European provider of exchange-traded products, has reported record levels of demand for its physical gold ETP, the Source Physical Gold P-ETC (SGLD LN), in January. The product attracted $300m of inflows over the month, bringing total assets under management to over $2bn. Christopher Mellor, Executive Director, Equities Product Management at Source, commented: “Given the challenging start to 2016 and nervousness in the markets, there is clearly a renaissance in gold as a haven. We have seen record demand for our gold product, with investors attracted to its very low cost and high liquidity.”

WisdomTree, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced the opening of its Tokyo-based subsidiary, WisdomTree Japan. The newly established unit completed its Type 1 Financial Instruments Business registration with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Finance and officially began operations on 16 February 2016. The firm will seek to attract business from institutional clients in the region. The unit will be headed up by Jesper Koll who joined from JP Morgan Chase & Co in 2015 after running the firm’s equity research team in Tokyo for more than five years.