Alternative investments

Investors are interested in innovative investments that meet specific principals, according to a study by CREATE Research, commissioned by Citi’s global transaction services and Principal Global Investors.

Despite a skittish U.S. economy, most commercial real estate investors remain upbeat and cautiously optimistic about the industry’s future, according to the PwC Real Estate Investor Survey. In fact, the majority continues to invest in all sectors of commercial real estate, as they continue to see signs that the industry’s fundamentals are stabilizing.

Direxion has launched five new daily leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, focused on sectors that have attracted large assets and have high trading volume.

IndexIQ has launched the IQ US Real Estate Small Cap ETF (ticker: ROOF), which it says is the first ETF focused on small-cap U.S. real estate.

Neuberger Berman has launched the Neuberger Berman Global Allocation Fund, a flexile, go-anywhere fund designed to serve as the core of an investor’s portfolio.

Alternative investment advisor Equinox Fund Management has launched the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund, a market-neutral mutual fund that aims to exploit inefficiencies in the futures contracts market by taking both long and short positions.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X SuperDividend ETF, an exchange-traded fund that offers exposure to 100 global companies that rank among the highest dividend-yielding equity securities in the world.

Credit Suisse Asset Management has re-launched the Credit Suisse Floating Rate High Income Fund, previously known as the Credit Suisse High Income Fund.

Parametric Launches Structured Commodity Strategy Fund

T. Rowe Price has launched the T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond Fund, in anticipation of those investors who would like to diversify away from the U.S. dollar.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Farming ETF, an exchange-traded fund that focuses on companies involved in agricultural products, livestock operations and the manufacturing of farming equipment.

John Hancock Funds has launched the John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund, a closed-end fund that had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. This is Hancock’s tenth closed-end fund. Wellington Management is the subadvisor.

Global X Funds on Thursday launched the Global X Fertilizers/Potash ETF, giving investors access to what Global X calls a “critical” agricultural and commodity sector.

Direxion has launched four new leveraged exchange-traded funds, tied to the DAXglobal Russia Index and the DAXglobal Agribusiness Index. Each of the funds seeks 300% of the daily performance or the daily inverse of those indexes.

Russell Investments and Axioma have launched a series of long-only large- and small-cap factor indexes designed to help investors better manage their portfolio’s exposure to five risk factors.

Palmer Square Capital Management, a manager of hedge funds-of-funds and customized alternative investments, had launched its first open end mutual fund, the Palmer Square Absolute Return Fund.

Russell Investments has launched a new suite of six exchange-traded funds, the Russell Investment Discipline ETFs, which focus on six investment styles commonly used by investment managers.

Janus has launched the Janus Real Return Allocation Fund, which seeks to provide total returns in excess of the rate of inflation over a full market cycle. Janus will co-manage the fund with Armored Wolf.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Fishing Industry ETF, which it says is the first exchange-traded fund to target the fishing industry. It will invest in commercial fishing companies that capture fish from the wild and aquaculture fish farming companies.

The Investment Company Institute held its annual meeting of its membership in Washington, D.C. last week. Close enough to Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters that chairman Mary L. Schapiro could swing by and let the assemblage know that existing mutual fund distribution rules "can't be left to stand."