Short positions... Cathie Wood goes global

■ Three of US star-investment manager Cathie Wood’s best-known funds have launched on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext, the European bourse, says Emma Boyde in the Financial Times. They offer European investors the chance to bet on or against her strategy. Leverage Shares, which makes international stocks available to European investors through exchange-traded product packages (see above), is now offering trackers reflecting Wood’s “highprofile” Ark funds. They allow users to mirror the Ark funds or to amplify returns from her gains or losses. The product launch comes as many of Ark’s funds suffer “unprecedented pressure”. Ark is renowned for its large bets on “hot techfocused stocks” but its strategy has faltered as the prospect of dearer money “has dented the appeal of some of these often unprofitable companies”. The launches are among 42 exchange-traded products that Leverage Shares listed in London in mid-December.

■ The exchange-traded funds (ETF) sector’s fee war has reignited in recent weeks, says Katherine Greifeld on Bloomberg. Asset-manager Vanguard has cut costs “even closer to zero” on 17 of its US-listed funds this week following similar cuts by rival State Street Global Advisors a fortnight before. The company dropped its expense ratio to 0.04% from 0.05% for eight of its fixedincome funds, matching three of State Street’s corporate-bond ETFs, and said it would also lower costs across its range of equity ETFs and funds. “Cut-throat competition for assets in an increasingly saturated market has taken fees on some of the biggest ETFs to near-zero levels.” Vanguard has dominated the field: the $8.4trn asset manager looks set to record the highest inflows of any issuer worldwide for the second year in a row.