Index to Serve as the Basis for new UBS Investment Products

NEW YORK, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- With the returns of gold rivaling that of the U.S. equity market, Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today the launch of the S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index. The Index seeks to simulate the returns of an investment strategy which is long the total return of the S&P 500 stock market index and long gold futures contracts, allowing investors to participate in the returns of the US equity market while hedging against a decline in the value of the U.S. dollar versus gold.

Standard & Poor's also announced that it has licensed UBS to create and launch investment products based upon the S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index.

"In a gold-hedged strategy, investors are seeking to eliminate the risk of U.S. dollar fluctuations and are therefore willing to sacrifice potential currency gains against gold," says Liz Taxin, Director of Strategy Indices at S&P Indices. "By holding long gold futures contracts, investors stand to gain when the U.S. dollar loses value as expressed in the dollar price of gold."

The S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index is calculated as a combination of a long S&P 500 position overlaid with a long position in COMEX gold futures. The hedge only protects against adverse movements in the relative value of the U.S. dollar, as expressed in the dollar price of gold. Stock market risk is not hedged in any way.

The results of a gold-hedged index strategy, versus that of an un-hedged strategy, vary depending upon the movement of the gold futures contract and the U.S. dollar. By holding long gold futures contracts, investors may gain when the U.S. dollar loses value as expressed by gold. Conversely, they may lose when the opposite occurs.

The S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index is rebalanced monthly to equalize notional exposure to equity and gold. The positions are rebalanced to equal weights on the day of rebalancing.

For more information on the S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index, please visit: www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About S&P Indices

S&P Indices, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Over $1 trillion is directly indexed to Standard & Poor's family of indices, which includes the S&P 500, the world's most followed stock market index, the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, and the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely watched commodities index. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for nearly 150 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com

Standard & Poor's does not sponsor, endorse, sell or promote any S&P index-based investment product.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's

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