Daily ETF Watch: Dividend ETFs In Focus

ProShares plans ETFs targeting dividends in developed and emerging markets.

ProShares has put into registration four ETFs, three of which are focused on dividend plays spanning developed and emerging markets, and a fourth—a fund of funds ETF—targeting the alternative asset class. All are tools for grappling with low rates and the U.S. economy’s choppy recovery.

ProShares’ latest proposed funds—including the MSCI EAFE Dividend Masters ETF, MSCI Emerging Markets Dividend Masters ETF and the MSCI Europe Dividend Masters ETF—will all target companies that have increased dividend payments each year for at least seven years, according to the regulatory filing.

Associated fees and tickers for the funds were not made available in the filing.

Dividend strategies remain attractive given low bond yields, but investors remain anxious about how abruptly yields will again climb to their historical mean.

The fourth ETF the Bethesda, Md.-based firm put into registration this week is designed to minimize this investor concern.

The company filed to market the ProShares Morningstar Alternatives Solution ETF (ALTS), a fund of funds that will invest in other ProShares alternative funds. Alternative investing is designed to dampen volatility, producing steady returns that provide downside protection, though those returns will trail the broader markets in uptrends.

The ETF will track the Morningstar Alternatives Index.

That benchmark includes securities that are in a number of existing ProShares ETFs, including:

• ProShares Hedge Replication ETF (HDG | F-58)
• ProShares RAFI Long/Short (RALS | C-82)
• ProShares Merger ETF (MRGR | F-59)
• ProShares Global Listed Private Equity (PEX | F-49)
• ProShares 30 Year TIPS/TSY Spread (RINF)
• ProShares DJ Brookfield Global Infrastructure ETF (TOLZ)

Fees for the fund were not made available in the filing.

Filing

Global X has filed to market the actively managed Global X Commodities Strategy ETF at a time when world commodity prices have surged driven by supply shocks resulting from dry weather conditions in Brazil as well as tensions in Ukraine.

While short-term factors have affected commodity prices, the long-term demand for commodities from big consumers such as China has waned, driven by its slowing economy, putting on hold for now the asset class’ powerful gains in the first decade of the new century.

The fund will invest in a portfolio of exchange-traded physical commodity futures contracts and exchange‑traded commodity linked instruments through a wholly owned subsidiary organized in the Cayman Islands, according to a regulatory filing.

Associated fees and tickers for the fund were not made available in the filing.