Investment banking giant Nomura has released a report on gold equities which is highly bullish for gold mining ETFs. According to the report, record cash generation, a new industry focus on financial returns, as well as a potential forward softening in mining capex and operating cost inflation suggest that the historically low valuations currently priced into the gold mining sector are unlikely to persist.

Market Vectors ETFs, the fifth largest provider of exchange-traded products in the US and the eighth largest provider globally, has signalled its global ambitions by partnering with Australian Index Investments (Aii) to launch Market Vectors Australia. Meanwhile, in a further demonstration of the firm’s international expansion plans, five NYSE Arca-traded Market Vectors ETFs have been added to the growing list of Market Vectors ETFs currently available to Qualified Investors in Mexico.

Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and FXCM, a global online provider of foreign exchange trading, have announced the launch of the Dow Jones FXCM Yen Index. The new index measures changes in the value of the Japanese yen against a basket of four of the most-transacted currencies against the yen: the US dollar, the euro, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar.

DeltaOne Solutions, a provider of financial data solutions, has released a new database containing 10-years of historical data covering constituent history and pricing for tens of thousands of indices and ETFs. The database includes official index value, constituent data, global coverage, fully cross-referenced security identifiers and is retrievable in a variety of formats via a web interface for download or an API.

First Trust Advisors, a US-based ETF provider, has announced the launch of the First Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund (EMLP), an actively managed ETF designed to provide exposure to companies engaged in the North American energy infrastructure sector. First Trust believes this is an opportune time to invest in energy infrastructure assets, in part because of the new technologies that have been developed to extract previously inaccessible natural gas and oil supplies trapped in shale deposits in North America.

Morningstar has published details of a study which delves into the data points that measure the true cost of ETF ownership. The key finding: keep an eye on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Morningstar found that, while clearly ETFs cost less on average, poor trade execution or poor ETF selection can actually negate the expense ratio advantage.

Japan’s exports jumped 10% in May, according to data from Japan’s Ministry of finance. Imports also increased during the month in a sign that domestic demand may also be picking up. Overall, the data eases concerns about the impact of a global slowdown on the Japanese economy, raising interest in Japanese equity ETFs. Katsuaki Ogata, a CIO at Alliance Bernstein, believes that, at today’s valuations, Japanese equities offer an “exceptional investment opportunity” and that the Japanese market is “available at historically attractive prices”.

Over the past week shares in two of the largest rare earth metals producers, Lynas (LYC) and Molycorp (MCP), have rallied on a combination of stock-specific and industry news. The strong performance from these two sector heavy weights has pushed up rare earth ETFs, including the Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) and the UBS-ETF STOXX Global Rare Earth (UIMV), which are showing signs of rebounding from recent lows.

State Street Global Advisors has announced the launch of two new corporate bond ETFs, the SPDR BofA Merrill Lynch Emerging Markets Corporate Bond ETF (EMCD) and the SPDR BofA Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate Bond ETF (XOVR). The two new SPDR ETFs, which have been listed on the NYSE Arca, provide investors with an opportunity to access the attractive yield and total return potential of emerging market corporate debt and crossover corporate bonds.

Huntington Asset Advisors, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Huntington National Bank, has made its debut in the US ETF space with the launch, on the NYSE Arca, of the Huntington EcoLogical Strategy ETF (HECO). HECO, the first of two initial planned ETFs under the company’s newly minted ‘Huntington Strategy Shares’ brand, is an actively managed ETF that focuses on sustainable and environmentally-friendly companies.