Thematic Investing

In this Perspectives report, we weigh the military sales exposures of a European defense portfolio, and examine its alignment with current sustainability regulations.

STOXX Ltd., part of the ISS STOXX group of companies, today announced its expanding collaboration with DWS, with DWS’ launch of its Xtrackers Europe Defence Technologies UCITS ETF tracking the STOXX® Europe Total Market Defence Space and Cybersecurity Innovation index, as the continent undertakes a historic upgrade of its military capabilities.

The underlying index combines revenues- and patent-based stock selection methodologies, capturing companies across the spectrum and life cycle of the targeted themes.

Large-scale investments in the area of AI infrastructure — such as semiconductors and cloud computing — herald gains in company efficiencies and profits in coming years. The iShares AI Infrastructure UCITS ETF, which tracks a STOXX index, has topped USD 100 million in assets only nine months following its launch in December last year.

Amid strong demand for European defense stocks this year, seeking ‘pure’ exposure to the theme through military equipment revenues has enabled investors to outperform.

Stocks gained for a fifth consecutive month in August amid expectations the Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates as early as this month.

Seismic shifts in the environment, technology and socio-demographics — known as megatrends — as well as geopolitical drivers are transforming our world and creating investable themes such as artificial intelligence, defense, digital assets and energy transition metals. Thematic indices offer investors a chance to target the beneficiaries of these trends.

AI is a vast and complex theme that covers multiple conceptual areas and technologies. How do patents help identify the AI innovators that are selected into STOXX thematic indices? We asked EconSight’s Kai Gramke and STOXX’s Ladi Williams.

Stocks rose for a fourth consecutive month in July amid optimism that the worst of new trade tariffs will be avoided and as companies reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

NH-Amundi, the Korean asset manager jointly owned by NongHyup Financial Group and Amundi, the leading European asset manager, today announced a new collaboration with STOXX, a leading European provider of benchmark and custom index solutions, to launch the HANARO Europe Defense ETF in the Korean market.

Ladi Williams, Head of Thematics and Strategy Index Product Management at STOXX, explains how the index provider has catered to the specific needs and objectives of ETF managers in devising a series of indices targeting the defense sector.

Ladi Williams, Head of Thematics and Alternative Strategies at STOXX, explains in an article on ETF Stream how we have catered to the specific needs and objectives of ETF managers in devising a series of indices targeting the defense sector.