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NYSE Breaks Trades of S&P 500 ETF Showing 9.6% Plunge
October 18. 2010--A software update at NYSE Euronext’s Arca platform triggered what appeared to be a 9.6 percent plunge in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a drop that would have erased $7.9 billion from one of the most popular securities in the U.S.
Data published by the electronic venue at 4:15 p.m. New York time showed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust at $106.46 compared with its opening price of $117.74. The apparent plunge in price involved 7.2 million shares in the closing auction on NYSE Arca, according to data compiled by Bloomberg at 4:30 p.m. The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent to close at 1,184.71 today.
read more
Source: Bloomberg
SEC Proposes Rules on "Say on Pay" and Proxy Vote Reporting
October 18, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rules that would enable shareholders to cast advisory votes on executive compensation and "golden parachute" arrangements. The rules are called for by Section 951 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Under the proposed rules, public companies subject to the federal proxy rules would be required to:
provide their shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation and an advisory vote on the desired frequency of these votes;
provide shareholders with an advisory vote on compensation arrangements and understandings in connection with merger transactions, known as "golden parachute" arrangements; and
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Source: SEC.gov
Wave of closures set to hit US coal stations
October 18, 2010--Closures of US coal-fired power plants are set to accelerate sharply during the coming decade as a wave of environmental regulations hits the industry, analysts and executives believe.
Ageing plants are threatened by the cost of investment needed to cut pollution, as well as by competition from cheap gas supplies created by the boom in US production from previously uneconomic shale rocks.
Moves by the US government’s Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases thought to contribute to global warming, supposed to start next January, would hit coal the hardest.
CFTC Launches Online Form for Submitting Comments
Any Federal Register Release that is open for comment will have a “Submit Comment” button next to the open and closing dates of the comment period. Click the “Submit Comment” button.
Enter the required information into the form and enter your comment or provide your comment as an attachment
Comments and any attachments will be published, without removal of any personally identifying or other sensitive information
Disclaimer:
read more CFTC/SEC Staffs to Host Joint Public Roundtable to Discuss Issues Related to the Clearing of Credit Default Swaps read more WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund (DEM) Receives 5-Star Overall Morningstar Rating TM read more State Street Introduces New Exchange Traded Fund Servicing Capability to Help ETF Providers Streamline ETF Orders
“Since 1993, State Street has differentiated itself among other ETF service providers through its leading-edge technology, consultative client approach and flexible servicing model to service ETFs,” said Frank Koudelka, senior vice president at State Street Global Services. “Our new offering automates the way in which clients handle restricted securities, making it a seamless process with a clear audit trail that facilitates compliance with regulatory requirements.”
The Assisted Trading service is accessed through FundConnect, State Street’s online trading platform for ETFs, which is integrated with State Street’s transfer agency recordkeeping platform. The transfer agent releases the approved orders to the ETF accounting platform and the depository via DTCC Fast. State Street Global Advisors-ETF SNAPSHOT: SEPTEMBER 2010 ASSET CLASSES ? OVERALL
The S&P 500® Index rose 8.9% while MSCI EAFE® Index gained 9.8%. U.S. Bonds were relatively flat with the Barclays U.S. Treasury Index gaining 0.02% and the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index climbing 0.11%. Gold rose 4.9% to $1,307 per ounce.
Gains in the Size and International categories accounted for the majority of the total gain in ETF AUM.
The Dividend/Fundamental category climbed 20.4%, or $4.1BN.
Year-to-date, areas with significant positive asset growth are Commodities: up $16.4BN, Fixed Income: up $33.1BN, and Dividend/Fundamental: up $8.5BN. SIZE/STYLE
Large Cap assets rose $25.8BN, followed by Mid Cap, up $3.1BN. SECTOR
Technology, Energy, and Materials each rose more than $1BN in absolute terms. MANAGER AND FUND DETAIL
The top three managers in the US ETF marketplace were: BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard. Collectively, they accounted for approximately 84.0% of the US-listed ETF market. For more detail , please visit www.spdrs.com. ETF Securities said on Monday its U.S.-listed palladium exchange-traded product broke above $500 million in assets under management, reflecting investor demand for precious metals other than gold. "PALL reaching $500m is another strategic milestone for ETF Securities in the US market. The interest in both PALL and its sister product, PPLT (Platinum) may indicate investors are looking to diversify their portfolios to hold more precious metals than just Gold”
The objective of the ETFS Platinum Trust’s (PPLT) shares reflect the performance of the price of Platinum, less the Trust’s expenses. The Trust is open ended and is designed for investors who want a cost-effective (1) and convenient (2) way to invest in Platinum as well as diversify their precious metal holdings. Both products have an expense ratio of 0.60% per annum. (3) The objective of the ETFS Palladium Trust’s (PALL) shares reflect the performance of the price of Palladium, less the Trust’s expenses. The Trust is open ended and is designed for investors who want a cost-effective (1) and convenient (2) way to invest in Palladium as well as diversify their precious metal holdings. read more
US ETF Weekly Update-Morgan Stanley For the seventh week in a row, ETFs generated net inflows —$6.1 blnlast week 13-week flows were mostly positive among asset classes US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Largest Flows by Individual ETF US-Listed ETFs: ETF Dollar Volume request report
Source: FT.com
October 18, 2010-The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has improved the process for submitting public comments for Federal Register Releases and Industry Filings. The new online comment submission form will allow the public to submit their comments directly via the website. Comments submitted via the online form will be processed and published on the CFTC’s website.
To use the Online Form:
Find the Proposed Rule or Industry submission on which you want to comment in the list of All Open Comment Deadlines.
Source: CFTC.gov
October 18, 2010--— The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staffs will hold a public roundtable on October 22, 2010, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, to discuss issues related to the clearing of credit default swaps. The roundtable will assist both agencies in the rulemaking process to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The roundtable will be held in the Lobby Level Hearing Room at the CFTC’s Headquarters, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC. The discussion will be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of the public may also listen by telephone and should be prepared to provide their first name, last name and affiliation.
Source: CFTC.gov
October 18, 2010--WisdomTree (Pink Sheets: WSDT - News), an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) sponsor and asset manager, announced today that the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund (DEM) recently received a 5-Star overall rating from Morningstar, Inc for three-year performance 2 and outperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by 6.77% based on Net Asset Value (NAV) since its inception as of September 30, 2010.
DEM is a dividend-weighted ETF tracking the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Index. (DEM ranked third out of 308 funds in the Morningstar U.S. Open End Diversified Emerging Markets Universe over a three year period)
Source: Wisdom Tree
October 18, 2010--State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), one of the world’s leading providers of financial services to institutional investors, announced today that it has launched a new service for the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) market to help clients process ETF orders more efficiently and in an automated and streamlined fashion. As ETFs have continued to grow in popularity and in number, the complexity involved in servicing ETFs has increased significantly.
ETFs currently account for more than $1 trillion in global assets under management and remain an efficient, low-cost, transparent and tax-friendly investment tool. With State Street’s Assisted Trading service, authorized participants, typically market makers or specialists who obtain the underlying assets to create ETFs, can simultaneously enter the ETFs they want to trade and identify any restricted shares via State Street’s FundConnect platform. Restricted shares are securities that are not eligible for proprietary trading and change daily based on underwriting, mergers, investments and other activities. Previously, the method for identifying restricted shares within ETFs was manual and intensive. Using this capability, the restricted shares are segregated and sent to State Street Global Markets, the company’s investment research and trading arm, to be traded. This process ensures that the authorized participant is completely in compliance with all regulatory and exchange requirements when trading ETFs.
Source: State Street
October 18, 2010--As of September 30, 2010, 942 ETFs—with assets totaling approximately $885BN—were managed by 33 ETF managers.
ETF industry assets rose $84.8BN for the month, up 10.6%.
ETF Industry Detail
Source: State Street Global Advisors
October 18, 2010-- Commenting on the AUM milestone for PALL; William Rhind, Strategic Director for ETFS Marketing LLC, said:
ETFS Platinum Trust and ETFS Palladium Trust
Source: ETF Securities
October 18, 2010--Weekly Flows: $6.1 Billion Net Inflows
ETFs Traded $325 Billion Last Week
Launches: 1 New ETF
iSharesSemiconductor ETF Undergoes Changes
First Trust Ownership Transitioning
US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Flows by Market Segment
Weekly net inflows driven by US Large-Cap & Emerging Market Equities ($4.2 blnfor the week combined)
ETF assets stand at $928 bln; up 19% YTD
$44.3 bln net inflows into ETFs over 13 weeks (41% into EM Equities)
We estimate ETFs have posted net inflows 29 out of 41 weeks YTD
SPY posted net inflows of $1.8 blnlast week, the most of any ETF
Despite SPY’snet inflows last week, we estimate YTD the fund has posted net outflows of $5.7 bln
Over 13-wk period, EM Equity ETF (VWO) has taken in most new money ($7.3bln)
Market share of mthly ETF volume as % of listed volume has more than doubled over 5 yrs
US Large-Cap accounts for 43% weekly ETF volume, but only has 21% of market cap
Fixed Income accounts for only 3% weekly ETF volume, but has 15% of market cap
Source: ETF Research-Morgan Stanley
