State Street has announced that they will begin trading The SPDR BofA Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:XOVR) Tuesday, June 19, 2012. The SPDR BofA Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate Bond ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of an index that tracks the U.S. crossover corporate bond market.

THE FUND’S PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY

In seeking to track the performance of the BofA Merrill Lynch US Diversified Crossover Corporate Index (the “Index”), the Fund employs a sampling strategy, which means that the Fund is not required to purchase all of the securities represented in the Index. Instead, the Fund may purchase a subset of the securities in the Index in an effort to hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index. The quantity of holdings in the Fund will be based on a number of factors, including asset size of the Fund. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSgA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund, generally expects the Fund to hold less than the total number of securities in the Index, but reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the Fund’s investment objective.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the Index or in securities the Adviser determines have economic characteristics substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the Index. The Fund will provide shareholders with at least 60 days notice prior to any material change in this 80% investment policy. In addition, the Fund may invest in debt securities that are not included in the Index, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds (including money market funds advised by the Adviser).

The Index is designed to measure the performance of US dollar denominated BBB and BB corporate debt publicly issued in the US domestic market. “Crossover” corporate debt generally means corporate debt rated at levels where the lower end of investment grade debt and the higher end of high yield debt meet. Qualifying securities must be rated BBB1 through BB3, inclusive (based on an average of Moody’s, S&P and Fitch). Qualifying securities must have at least one year remaining term to maturity, a fixed coupon schedule and a minimum amount outstanding of $250 million. Original issue zero coupon bonds, 144a securities, both with and without registration rights, and pay-in-kind securities, including toggle notes, qualify for inclusion. Callable perpetual securities qualify provided they are at least one year from the first call date. Fixed-to-floating rate securities also qualify provided they are callable within the fixed rate period and are at least one year from the last call prior to the date the bond transitions from a fixed to a floating rate security. Eurodollar bonds (USD bonds not issued in the US domestic market), taxable and tax-exempt US municipal, warrant-bearing, DRD-eligible and defaulted securities are excluded from the Index. Qualifying constituents are segmented into two groups: those rated between BBB1 and BBB3, inclusive, and those rated between BB1 and BB3, inclusive. Within the two groups, constituents are capitalization-weighted. Each group is then assigned a 50% weight in the overall index; with a 2% cap on each issuer. Accrued interest is calculated assuming next-day settlement. Cash flows from bond payments that are received during the month are retained in the index until the end of the month and then are removed as part of the rebalancing. Cash does not earn any reinvestment income while it is held in the Index. The Index is rebalanced on the last calendar day of the month, based on information available up to and including the third business day before the last business day of the month. Issues that meet the qualifying criteria are included in the Index for the following month. Issues that no longer meet the criteria during the course of the month remain in the Index until the next month-end rebalancing at which point they are removed from the Index. As of [            ], 2012, there were approximately [            ] securities in the Index and the modified adjusted duration of securities in the Index was approximately [            ] years.

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FUND LAUNCH, NYSE:XOVR