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Products December 5, 2007
AMEX Gets Another SPDR
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, says that a new high yield exchange traded fund began trading yesterday.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
According to a press release, the SPDR Lehman High Yield Bond ETF (ticker: JNK) began trading on the American Stock Exchange on December 4, 2007.
Featuring an expense ratio of 0.40%, the SPDR Lehman High Yield Bond ETF seeks to track the total return performance of the Lehman Brothers High Yield Very Liquid Index. The press release notes that the index includes high yield taxable corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of at least one year, are generally rated below investment grade (Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below, commonly referred to as “junk bonds”), and have $600 million or more of outstanding face value.
As of October 31, 2007, the Index provided exposure to 105 issues.
Other Offerings
State Street Global Advisors has managed fixed income index funds since 1984. Today, the firm manages more than $244 billion in total fixed income globally and more than $134 billion3 in ETF assets worldwide, according to the press release. Recent fixed income ETF launches include an international treasury bond fund ETF (see SSgA Launches International Treasury Bond ETF), and the first ETF to offer investors exposure to the national short-term municipal bond market (see SSgA Adds Three Fixed Income ETFs).