The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

Standard Chartered

The UK’s Standard Chartered Global Chief Investment Office (CIO) has released a new CIO equity newsletter entitled Long Story Short, outlining key equity market insights, developments and trends. The newsletter distils key equity market drivers into a concise format, featuring three sections: The Story, Long (positive implications), and Short (negative implications).

As artificial intelligence continues to drive global markets, questions remain over whether it represents a bubble for investors. In this inaugural edition, Standard Chartered is introducing its AI bubble meter — a confidence index designed to help investors navigate the broader AI landscape.

For February, the AI bubble meter shows an improvement in the AI confidence index with a better risk-reward profile, suggesting a potential 5 to10 per cent return for the AI theme over the next three to six months. However, with AI adoption rates accelerating, Standard Chartered said it is being cautious on traditional business models facing disruption risk, particularly across hardware, legacy software and other service-related industries.

“We rolled out our new AI bubble meter in this first Long Story Short because investor sentiment remains fragile, given the evolving geopolitical landscape and lingering concerns around the AI narrative,” Sundeep Gantori, chief investment officer, equities, said.

Robeco

Rotterdam-headquartered asset manager Robeco has expanded its fixed income exchange-traded fund (ETF) offering by launching two new actively managed quantitative strategies: Robeco Dynamic High Yield and Robeco 3D Enhanced Index Credits, both available in global and European versions. The new active ETFs are listed on Deutsche Börse Xetra, the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and SIX Swiss exchange.

The two Dynamic High Yield UCITS ETFs use a set of market indicators, including spreads, volatility, macroeconomic data and momentum to form an evidence-based view on high yield credit risk. The ETFs adjust high yield beta exposure using highly liquid CDS indices. This allows the strategy to adjust its risk profile quickly, taking additional exposure when market conditions are expected to be favourable while reducing exposure during periods of stress. The result is a high yield allocation designed to be flexible, forward-looking and responsive to changing markets, the firm said in a statement.

The 3D Enhanced Index Credits ETFs are designed as smarter alternatives to passive credit investing, aiming to modestly enhance returns while staying closely aligned with their benchmarks.