Northern Trust’s (NasdaqGS: NTRS) FlexShares unit is making it easier for investors to get exposure to real assets with the new FlexShares Real Asset Allocation Index Fund (NasdaqGM: ASET), which holds three other FlexShares exchange traded funds.
ASET “seeks to provide investors with a core real assets allocation that helps address their inflation-hedging, diversification, and income needs. Designed to serve as a real assets allocation solution, the strategy applies a proprietary optimization to the three underlying funds in an effort to minimize the volatility of returns and lower risk in the fund,” according to a statement issued by FlexShares.
The new ETFs holdings are the FlexShares Global Quality Real Estate Index Fund (NYSEArca: GQRE), FlexShares STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index Fund (NYSEArca: NFRA) and the FlexShares Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resource Index Fund (NYSEArca: GUNR).
In the current environment, market observers have been focusing on the swings in the oil market. Carlson points out that while prices are depressed, American producers are still pumping out more oil.
For instance, a state-mandated time limit on drilling and major oil-tax incentive in North Dakota’s Bakken oil could fuel a production spike in the region. Meanwhile, oil demand remains relatively flat after seeing an average one-and-a-half percent growth rate from 1995 through the end of 2013.