Americas ETP News
If your looking for specific news, using the search function will narrow down the results
PIMCO Launches Broad U.S. Treasury Index Fund
'TRSY' Broadens Access to U.S. Treasuries in Efficient ETF Format
November 1, 2010-- PIMCO, a leading global investment solutions provider, has launched the PIMCO Broad U.S. Treasury Index Fund (Ticker: TRSY) to offer investors exposure to the broad U.S. Treasury yield curve via an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
"PIMCO has designed TRSY as a single ETF providing exposure to the broad U.S. Treasury yield curve," said Vineer Bhansali, managing director and portfolio manager of the new ETF. "The fund seeks to be a convenient and efficient alternative to investing in individual U.S. Treasury securities."
The PIMCO Broad U.S. Treasury Index Fund aims to achieve the yield, duration and capital preservation inherent in The BofA Merrill Lynch Liquid US Treasury Index(SM). The ETF structure allows for trading and pricing throughout the day and has the same expense ratio for all investors, regardless of size. Also, ETF fund shares are publicly traded, offering accessibility to any investor who can access a major stock exchange.
Potential benefits of this fund include:
Convenient and efficient exposure to the broad U.S. Treasury yield curve.
Access to the entire spectrum of Treasuries with one fund rather than multiple Treasury ETFs or individual securities.
A liquid basket that includes the three most recently issued 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, 10-year, and 30-year U.S. Treasury notes and bonds (including "on-the-run issues," or those securities most recently issued).
Source: PIMCO
UBS Announces New Energy Exchange Traded Note Linked to the Wells Fargo® MLP Index
November 1, 2010--UBS Investment Bank announced today that it has added to its suite of UBS E-TRACS Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) with the new UBS E-TRACS linked to the Wells Fargo® MLP Index due October 29, 2040. It began trading today on NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol, MLPW, and provides investors a way to gain exposure to the Master Limited Partnership (MLP) energy sector.
“We are excited to bring this 17th UBS E-TRACS ETN to market,” said Christopher Yeagley, Managing Director and US Head of Equity Structured Products. “This is our fifth ETN based on Master Limited Partnerships, and rounds out our suite of energy MLP products. UBS E-TRACS now offers ETNs linked to both the Infrastructure and Natural Gas components of the energy MLP market, short exposure to energy MLPs, leveraged exposure to energy MLPs, and now broad exposure to the MLP energy market.”
Master Limited Partnership is a publicly traded limited partnership that has certain tax advantages of a partnership for the holder of the MLP. The UBS E-TRACS Wells Fargo® MLP Index is linked to the Wells Fargo® MLP Index and pays a variable quarterly coupon linked to the cash distributions associated with the MLP constituents of the Index, less investor fees. The payment at maturity or upon earlier redemption or call by UBS is linked to the performance of the Index.
read more
Source: UBS
U.S. Department of the Treasury TIC Annual and Benchmark Surveys Update
Noevember 1, 2010--The U.S. Department of the Treasury TIC Annual and Benchmark Surveys have been updated and is now available.
view updates
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues to Meet
October 29, 2010--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a public meeting of the Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues on November 5, 21010, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, to:
Receive a summary and recap from the staffs of the CFTC and SEC on the report issued September 30, 2010;
hear a report from the subcommittee on cross-market linkages;
hear a report from the subcommittee on pre-trade risk management; and
discuss potential recommendations and responses.
The meeting will be held in the Lobby Level Hearing Room at the CFTC’s Headquarters. Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
read more
Source: CFTC.gov
U.S. International Reserve Position
October 29, 2010--The Treasury Department today released U.S. reserve assets data for the latest week. As indicated in this table, U.S. reserve assets totaled $135,793 million as of the end of that week, compared to $136,532 million as of the end of the prior week.
I. Official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets (approximate market value, in US millions)
|
|
|
|||
|
|
October 22, 2010 |
|||
|
A. Official reserve assets (in US millions unless otherwise specified) 1 |
|
|
135,793 |
|
|
(1) Foreign currency reserves (in convertible foreign currencies) |
Euro |
Yen |
Total |
|
|
(a) Securities |
9,862 |
15,950 |
25,813 |
|
|
of which: issuer headquartered in reporting country but located abroad |
|
|
0 |
|
|
(b) total currency and deposits with: |
|
|
|
|
|
(i) other national central banks, BIS and IMF |
14,576 |
7,837 |
22,413 |
|
|
ii) banks headquartered in the reporting country |
|
|
0 |
|
|
of which: located abroad |
|
|
0 |
|
|
(iii) banks headquartered outside the reporting country |
|
|
0 |
|
|
of which: located in the reporting country |
|
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
(2) IMF reserve position 2 |
13,058 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
(3) SDRs 2 |
58,347 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
(4) gold (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped) 3 |
11,041 |
|||
|
--volume in millions of fine troy ounces |
261.499 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
(5) other reserve assets (specify) |
5,120 |
|||
|
--financial derivatives |
|
|||
|
--loans to nonbank nonresidents |
|
|||
|
--other (foreign currency assets invested through reverse repurchase agreements) |
5,120 |
|||
|
B. Other foreign currency assets (specify) |
|
|||
|
--securities not included in official reserve assets |
|
|||
|
--deposits not included in official reserve assets |
|
|||
|
--loans not included in official reserve assets |
|
|||
|
--financial derivatives not included in official reserve assets |
|
|||
|
--gold not included in official reserve assets |
|
|||
|
--other |
|
|
|
|
view more
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at End-Year 2009
October 29, 2010--The findings from an annual survey of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2009 were released today.
The survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
A complementary survey measuring foreign holdings of U.S. securities also is conducted annually. Data from the most recent such survey, which reports on securities held on June 30, 2010, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported on February 28, 2011.
Overall Results
This survey measured the value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2009 of approximately $6.0 trillion, with $4.0 trillion held in foreign equity, $1.6 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities (original term-to-maturity in excess of one year), and $0.4 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The previous such survey, conducted as of year-end 2008, measured U.S. holdings of approximately $4.3 trillion, with $2.7 trillion held in foreign equity, $1.3 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities and $0.3 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities. The increase in the value of U.S. portfolio holdings between the two surveys primarily reflects valuation changes in foreign equity during 2009.
U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities by country at the end of 2009 were the largest for the United Kingdom ($958 billion), followed by Canada ($540 billion), and Japan ($419 billion) (see Table 2). These three countries attracted about one-third of the total U.S. portfolio investment.
view the Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at End-Year 2009
view claims report
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Dow Jones Indexes and UBS Announce 2011 Weights of Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index
October 29, 2010--Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and UBS Investment Bank announced the new target weightings for the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity IndexSM that will become effective in early January 2011.
The new target weights for the commodity components, which were determined and approved by the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Supervisory Committee following consultation with the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Advisory Committee, are listed below.
read more
Source: Dow Jones Indexes
SEC Staff Publishes Progress Report on Work Plan for Global Accounting Standards
October 29, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant and Division of Corporation Finance today published their first progress report on the Work Plan related to global accounting standards.
The Commission directed agency staff earlier this year to execute the Work Plan to provide the information needed to evaluate the implications of incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) into the financial reporting system for U.S. issuers. The Commission indicated that following successful completion of the Work Plan and the convergence projects of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), it will be in a position in 2011 to determine whether to incorporate IFRS into the U.S. financial reporting system.
"The staff has invested significant time and effort in executing the Work Plan, and we've made great progress to date," said SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker. "This progress report emphasizes the importance of transparency in the staff's activities, and can help the public's understanding of the magnitude of this project and the staff's progress."
The Work Plan addresses six key areas:
Sufficient development and application of IFRS for the U.S. domestic reporting system.
The independence of standard setting for the benefit of investors.
Investor understanding and education regarding IFRS.
Examination of the U.S. regulatory environment that would be affected by a change in accounting standards.
The impact on issuers both large and small, including changes to accounting systems, changes to contractual arrangements, corporate governance considerations, and litigation contingencies.
Human capital readiness.
The SEC staff expects to continue to report periodically on the status of the Work Plan in 2011.
U.S. Department of the Treasury Economic Statistics - Quarterly Data Update
October 29, 2010--The U.S. Department of the Treasury Economic Statistics - Quarterly Data has been updated is now available.
read update
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
ETFs role in rising equity correlations
October 29, 2010--Growing use of exchange traded funds has contributed to an increase in correlations between individual equities, posing particular problems for long-short equity hedge funds, according to Hennessee Group, the consultant.
Hennessee said the growing popularity of ETFs and their rising share of overall trading volumes was contributing to the stock market being driven more by sentiment about broad economic issues rather than company fundamentals.
“The ‘risk on-risk off’ trade, driven largely by macro sentiment, continues to dominate the financial markets,” said Charles Gradante, co-founder of Hennessee. “Until we see fundamentals return to the forefront of investing, we believe hedge funds will have difficult executing their investment strategy, particularly on the short side.”
read more
Source: FT.com