New Listings
UBS launched four new ETFs on the Deutsche Börse last week. The funds track the performance of two US equity indices, specifically the MSCI USA and the S&P 500. The MSCI USA includes approximately 600 of the largest publicly-traded companies in the US, and both indices are weighed by free-float market capitalisation. As with all of UBS' equity ETFs, the funds use physical replication to track the performance of their reference index. The MSCI USA ETF has a management fee of 0.32% for the retail share class, while the institutional share class has a management fee of 0.15%. For the S&P 500 trackers, the retail share class has a management fee of 0.22%, while the institutional share class has a management fee of 0.05%. All four products reinvest dividends and trade in U.S. dollars.
Best and Worst Performers for the Week of February 7-11
Cotton prices have reached record highs, vaulting the ETFS Cotton ETC to the top of the list of best-performing ETPs for the week. The price of the commodity has doubled in the past 12 months due to increasing demand from China as well as supply-constraints as heavy rains and flooding ravaged key producing regions in India, Pakistan and Australia. Silver prices also increased as warehouse stocks of the metal hit a four-year low. Elevated prices have yet to deter strong demand from industry as well as investors and collectors. Among equities, the STOXX Europe 600 Autos & Parts index increased by more than 7% as the reports for January auto sales came in higher than expected.
Natural gas ETCs were among the week's worst performing ETPs. A weekly inventory report in the US showed that supplies on hand were higher than expected despite the recent cold spell. Taiwanese equities also had a poor week (influencing the decline in some ETFs tracking Asian equities) as the country's currency reached a 13-year high. The spike could affect the profitability of many Taiwanese electronics suppliers who export the majority of their production.