Barclays Global Investors has filed registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a pair of new exchange-traded funds, iShares GS Commodity Energy Indexed Trust and iShares GS Commodity Natural Gas Indexed Trust. The ETFs would track indexes from Goldman Sachs and would invest in commodity futures contracts, the unit of British bank Barclays Plc said in the filing.

XShares Advisors LLC launched five exchange-traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, with each one targeting a specific segment of the health care, life science and biotechnology industries.

Each ETF will track an index of 22 to 25 stocks.

XShares said the new ETFs take a "vertical" approach to sector investing, allowing investors to focus on diagnosing or treatment of specific diseases.

Barclays Global Investors (BGI) announced today that eight iShares fixed income ETFs began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, extending the choices ETF investors have with fixed income asset classes. This expands the fixed income iShares family to a total of 14 funds that cover the treasury and credit markets. The new funds are the following:

                                                                  Annual
                                                  Trading        Expense
Fund Name                                          Symbol         Ratio
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iShares Lehman Short Treasury Bond Fund              SHV           0.15%
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iShares Lehman 3-7 Year Treasury Bond Fund           IEI           0.15%
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iShares Lehman 10-20 Year Treasury Bond Fund         TLH           0.15%
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iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Credit Bond Fund             CSJ           0.20%
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iShares Lehman Intermediate Credit Bond Fund         CIU           0.20%
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iShares Lehman Credit Bond Fund                      CFT           0.20%
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iShares Lehman Intermediate
Government/Credit Bond Fund                         GVI           0.20%
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iShares Lehman Government/Credit Bond Fund           GBF           0.20%
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"Many investors have recognized that iShares fixed income funds help clear the opaqueness of fixed income investing that some investors experience," said Lee Kranefuss, CEO of BGI's Intermediary and Exchange Traded Funds Business. "Investors see for the first time intra-day pricing of groups of bonds that have similar maturities or quality. In addition, investors of fixed income iShares benefit from the institutional pricing that BGI, one of the largest asset managers in the world, can get when buying the funds' underlying bonds."

He added, "The iShares fixed income funds also provide investors with greater trading flexibility than traditional bond mutual funds to implement their market views. Investors can place limit and stop-loss orders on ETFs that allow investors to better time entry and exit into the market. In addition, iShares ETFs can be shorted on a downtick, making them a valuable risk management tool."

The iShares Funds are index funds that are bought and sold like common stocks on securities exchanges. The iShares Funds are attractive to many individual and institutional investors and financial intermediaries because of their relative low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account.

Barclays Global Investors (BGI) is one of the world's largest asset managers(1) providing structured investment strategies such as risk-controlled active strategies and indexing. In the US, BGI is one of the largest active managers(2), set apart by its risk-controlled approach. BGI manages 65% of the world's 100 largest pension plans(3) and is the leader in assets and products in exchange traded funds (ETFs) through its iShares® brand with more than 180 ETFs globally. The firm managed over $1.6 trillion in assets as of 9/30/06, for more than 2,800 clients in 52 countries around the world. BGI is a majority-owned subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC.

There are risks involved with investing, including possible loss of principal. Bonds and bond funds will generally decrease in value as interest rates rise. With short sales, you risk paying more for a security than you received from its sale.