Investment management giant Pimco and ETP provider Source have announced the launch of the Pimco Short-Term High Yield Corporate Bond Index Source ETF (STHY) on the London Stock Exchange. STHY is the first European-listed ETF focussed on the short-maturity sector of the high-yield corporate bond universe. High-yield exposure has been used by many as an alternative to equities. Historically, returns of the short-term segment of the high-yield market have been in line with equities, but with approximately half the volatility.

ETF provider Ossiam has announced the launch of the Ossiam Emerging Markets Minimum Variance NR ETF. The fund holds a selection of emerging market stocks from the S&P IFCI Index, specifically weighted to minimise the volatility, or variance, of the total portfolio. On average, the volatility of the strategy has proved to be at least 30% lower than the S&P IFCI index, with a significant reduction in drawdowns. The fund will list on the London, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris stock exchanges.

Source, one of Europe’s leading ETP providers, has announced that its highly popular Source Physical Gold P-ETC has also been listed on Xetra in EUR. The listing complements the existing listings in USD and GBP on the LSE and SIX Swiss Exchange, and provides euro-denominated investors with easy access to one of the fastest growing gold products in Europe. In 2011, the Source Physical Gold P-ETC raised over $1.2 billion in assets and traded over $4 billion on the LSE.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has announced the launch of the SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term High Yield Bond ETF (SJNK) on the NYSE Arca. The fund tracks the performance of the Barclays Capital 0-5 Cash Pay Constrained High Yield Index and offers investors access to high-yield corporate bonds with short durations. These tend to be less volatile and sensitive to changes in interest rates than debt securities with longer durations.

2012 will be a reverse image of 2011 and a tale of two halves for the world’s commercial real estate markets, according to global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. While there was a healthy start for 2011, rising uncertainty surrounding sovereign debt issues led to a slowdown in the economy and commercial real estate activity in the second half of the year. The exact opposite is expected for 2012, with a sluggish beginning giving way to improvements in the latter half of the year.

Russell Investments has launched two high dividend yield factor-based ETFs. The funds, the Russell High Dividend Yield ETF (HDIV) and the Russell Small Cap High Dividend Yield ETF (DIVS), track the market capitalisation-weighted Russell US Large Cap High Dividend Yield Index and Russell US Small Cap High Dividend Yield Index , respectively. Both indices weight companies based on measures of financial strength including cash flow, return on equity and analyst forecasts for earnings growth.

Canada-based ETF provider BMO Financial Group has announced that its ETF business recently surpassed CAD$5 billion in assets under management (AUM). In the first two months of 2012 alone, AUM grew by 32%. Last year BMO led the Canadian ETF industry in growth, accounting for $2.3 billion or 49% of the growth of assets under management. First introduced in 2009, the BMO range of ETFs has grown to 44 funds.

Favourable economic news, decent profit reports and massive money creation is fuelling rising stocks and “reflation”, according to a report from Harris Private Bank. The North America-based bank also believes that momentum for small caps, having outpaced the S&P 500 for about 11 years, is beginning to fade with large caps expected to outperform. “Small caps have overstayed their welcome owing to how relatively expensive they have become. We expect large caps to dominate the capitalisation race over the coming quarters,” advised Jack Ablin, the firm’s Chief Investment Officer.

CBOE Crude Oil ETF Volatility Index security futures will begin trading on CFE on Monday, 26 March, and options on the OVX Index will begin trading on CBOE on Tuesday, 10 April, according to a statement by CBOE Holdings. The derivatives, based on listed options prices of the United States Oil Fund ETF (USO), the ninth most actively-traded ETF options contract in the US last year, will allow traders to hedge volatility risk associated with crude oil futures prices.

Commodities were higher in February, with many commodities supported by positive macroeconomic data. Energy was the best performing sector, up 4.87% for the month. Commenting, Nelson Louie of Credit Suisse Asset Management noted that: “Commodity markets remain susceptible to global supply shocks, especially in the case of petroleum. Global oil supply and demand balances are significantly tighter than most had anticipated due to rising Middle East tensions and tighter sanctions, production disappointments, labour strikes and production shutdowns.”