The big turnaround of US oil production brought by new light tight oil developments was fully recognised in 2012, putting to rest the long-held notion that US domestic oil production was in terminal decline. Some market observers predict the US could become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020. Investors looking to play the US oil boom – or indeed the oil market in general – have a range of exciting options open to them owing to the vast number of ETFs on offer.

The yield on Canadian 10-year government bonds has remained stubbornly below 2% for much of the past year. It’s no surprise that investors are looking for alternative sources of yield. One such source is Canadian provincial bonds, which offer an attractive risk-adjusted yield premium. Listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and benchmarked to the DEX Universe Provincial Bond Index, the newly launched First Asset DEX Provincial Bond Index ETF (PXF) has been designed precisely to enable investors to access this premium.

After making its debut on SIX Swiss four months ago, ETF Securities has followed up with the launch of 28 Swiss franc currency-hedged exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) on the exchange. The products provide CHF/USD-hedged exposure to all the major commodities, including precious metals (gold, silver, platinum), industrial metals (aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc), energy (WTI, Brent and natural gas) and agriculture (including all the main grains and softs).

Buoyed by healthy inflows, assets under management at Amundi ETF grew by 37% last year from €6.5 billion at the end of 2011 to €8.9 billion at the end of 2012. Product development was one of the main drivers of this growth, as the Paris-based company rolled out a number of innovative new products that swelled the provider’s line-up to over 100 ETFs.

Investors have searched high and low for safe havens over the past couple of years. But when it comes to safe havens, one market stands out: the Swedish government bond market. According to ING, it is the “safest in the world” and will remain so for the “foreseeable future”. However, despite the country’s ultra-safe status, the lone ETF to offer exposure to this market, the XACT Sweden All Bond ETF, has slipped under investors’ radars, accumulating assets of only SEK 295.5 million (£28.7m) since its launch in March 2011.

WisdomTree has revealed that the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ) has surpassed $2 billion in assets, more than doubling its assets in under a month. Understandably popular with investors, the fund is designed to offer broad exposure to the Japanese equity market – with a tilt toward the exporters, who may stand to benefit from a depreciating yen – while hedging fluctuations in the value of yen relative to the dollar.

db X-trackers, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) platform of Deutsche Bank, has cross-listed five Chinese equity sector ETFs on Frankfurt’s Deutsche Börse. The funds, which already maintain listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange, provide European investors with targeted exposure to key segments of China’s CSI 300 Index. The sectors covered are banks, consumer discretionary, energy, health care and real estate. Together, these sectors constitute approximately 50% of the entire broad-market CSI 300.

Kodex, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) division of Seoul-based Samsung Asset Management, has launched South Korea’s first Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) ETF. The Samsung Kodex FTSE China A50 ETF, which is based on the FTSE China A50 Index, has been listed on the Korea Exchange and offers investors direct physical access to the 50 largest blue-chip companies listed in mainland China, so-called A-shares.

Resorts and casinos have had a strong start to the year on the back of impressive numbers out of Macau. 2012 saw gaming revenues hit a record $38.0 billion, up from $33.5 billion in 2011. December was particularly strong, as revenues hit a single month high of $3.5 billion. One way to play this theme is via the Market Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK), which provides pure-play exposure to the largest and most liquid companies in the global gaming segment.

Israel’s TA-25 Index, the flagship index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), celebrated its 20th birthday earlier this month. Since its debut back in January 1992, the index, which measures the performance of 25 of TASE’s largest companies, has become one of the most widely followed gauges of Israeli stocks and the underlying benchmark for a range of locally listed exchange-traded notes (ETNs)