Today's listings
Japan
iShares will be listing two new currency hedged corporate bond ETFs into Japan at the end of August. 1496 will track highly liquid investment grade bonds of giant global businesses based in developed countries. It will track a yen hedged version of the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade Index. It will be the fourth iShares product to reference that index.
1497 will track higher yielding bonds of transnational companies that "have an average rating of sub-investment grade", while also hedging with the yen. The index 1497 will track is the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Index - again with a yen hedging. It will be the third iShares product to use this benchmark.
Today's news from around the web
Heidi Ridley interview
An interview with new Rosenberg Equities top dog Heidi Ridley, in which she urges caution on smart beta funds. "Low fees have become equated with passive investing. But smart beta strategies are highly active and this can get lost in all the discussions about fee pressures. It's very easy for fees to become the magnet that drags investors in one direction or another."
Fee cuts for ESG ETFs
Every corner of the ETF universe is affected by the race to the bottom on fees. iShares have gutted the fees on their ESG ETFs, products which invest in an ethical and environmentally responsible manner. Fees on products ESGU, ESGD, and ESGE have all fallen 50%.
