European markets were finally up last week after two straight weeks of losses. The FTSE 100 increased +2.42%, the FTSE 250 was up +4.17%, whilst the Stoxx Europe 600 saw an increase of +2.08%. The DAX was also up for the week with a positive return of +2.94%.

 

U.S. equities were up +2.49% and the CSI 300 increased with a slight gain of +0.31% for the same period.

The CBOE Volatility Index dropped -9.20% from the previous week closing at 22.21 points.

WTI Crude oil closed last week at $41.22 a barrel, with an increase of +2.36%.

ETF Launches and Updates

Amundi launched a new short-term US government bonds ETF with currency hedging on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt.

The Amundi Prime US Treasury Bond 0-1 Y UCITS ETF DR – Hedged EUR (C) gives investors the opportunity to invest in US dollar-denominated government bonds issued by the US Treasury. The annual TER is 0.07 per cent.

DWS has launched the new Xtrackers II ESG EUR Corporate Bond Short Duration UCITS ETF. The Euro-denominated ETF tracks the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Euro Corporate Sustainable & SRI 0-5 Year Index. The fund has a TER of 0.16 per cent.

Listing will be on the London Stock Exchange, Xetra and the Switzerland’s SIX exchange.

HSBC Global Asset Management has launched a new ETF offering access to investments with low CO2 emissions. The HSBC Developed World Sustainable Equity UCITS ETF enables investors to invest in sustainable companies from industrialised countries worldwide.

The focus is on companies with a high ESG rating that contribute to a low-carbon economy and demonstrate low fossil fuel consumption. The annual TER is 0.18 per cent. 

UBS Asset Management has launched four equity ETFs offering put or call options on US and European stocks. Listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, the UBS ETF US Equity Defensive Put Write SF UCITS ETF (SPXPW) and the UBS ETF US Equity Defensive Covered Call SF UCITS ETF (SPXCC) have total expense ratios of 0.29%.

The UBS ETF Euro Equity Defensive Put Write SF UCITS ETF (E50PW) and the UBS ETF Euro Equity Defensive Covered Call SF UCITS ETF (E50CC) have total expense ratios of 0.26%. Source: ETF Stream

WisdomTree has changed the underlying index for their fund, the WTI Crude Oil ETC (CRUD), from the Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Subindex Total Return index to the Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Multi-Tenor Excess Return index.

WisdomTree and Bloomberg collaborated for the updated index so it could be more resilient to extreme conditions in the WTI crude oil market. The index aims to track the performance of an equal-weighted basket of three WTI crude oil future contracts and is rebalanced monthly. Source: ETF Stream

Flows and Performance

In the U.S.

SPDR Gold Shares, ticker GLD, has become one of the world’s biggest owners of gold, surpassing even the central banks of Japan and India, as investors have scrambled to buy the precious metal and pushed it to record highs.

The size of the fund’s holdings has climbed to 1,258 tonnes. On Monday and Tuesday alone, it added another 15 tonnes. It has posted a 33 per cent return this year that has helped lift its value to more than $80bn. The size of the fund puts it among the ranks of major central banks as shown in the graph below.