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Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
January 20, 2010--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Wednesday, January 20, 2010:
The shares of Ventura Gold Corp. (TSXVN:VGO) will be removed from the index.
The shares of the company have been acquired by International Minerals Corp. (TSX:IMZ) pursuant to an Arrangement Agreement.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poors
ISE Expands its Suite of FX Options Products With Launch of New Currency Pair
Options on Brazilian Real Now Available
January 20, 2010 – The International Securities Exchange (ISE) today announced that it
has expanded its ISE FX Options® portfolio with the launch of currency options on the Brazilian real
(Symbol: BRB). Timber Hill is the Primary Market Maker for these new products, which began trading on
January 19, 2010.
“We are very pleased to diversify our FX options product suite with the launch of our tenth currency pair,” said Kris Monaco, ISE’s Director of New Product Development. “Brazil is one of the most important emerging market economies in the world, and for the first time investors will be able to use their existing
securities accounts to hedge their exposure to the Brazilian real by trading an exchange-listed, centrally
cleared, cash-settled options product. As with all of our other FX Options products, investors will also be
able to use complex order types including spreads up to four legs.
ISE now lists FX options on ten currency pairs. The USD-based, or “per US$,” currency convention is available for all ten pairs and allows investors to express their views on the strength or weakness of the U.S. dollar relative to global currencies while adopting the trading strategies they currently use for equity and index options. The “in US$” currency convention, which is the inverse of the USD-based convention, is the traditional convention used in the FX spot market and is available on four currency pairs.
As exchange-listed securities, ISE FX Options are accessible through most major brokerage accounts
that are approved for trading equity and index options. These products are cash-settled and have
European style exercise. For more information, please visit www.ise.com/fx.
Source: International Securities Exchange (ISE)
U.S. International Reserve Position
January 20, 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 $131,997 million as of the end of that week, compared to $131,005 million as of the end of the prior week.
I. Official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets (approximate market value, in US millions)
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January 15, 2010 |
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A. Official reserve assets (in US millions unless otherwise specified) 1 |
Euro |
Yen |
Total |
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(1) Foreign currency reserves (in convertible foreign currencies) |
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131,997 |
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(a) Securities |
10,089 |
14,305 |
24,394 |
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of which: issuer headquartered in reporting country but located abroad |
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0 |
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(b) total currency and deposits with: |
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(i) other national central banks, BIS and IMF |
14,965 |
7,004 |
21,969 |
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ii) banks headquartered in the reporting country |
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0 |
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of which: located abroad |
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0 |
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(iii) banks headquartered outside the reporting country |
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0 |
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of which: located in the reporting country |
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0 |
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(2) IMF reserve position 2 |
11,411 |
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(3) SDRs 2 |
57,946 |
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(4) gold (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped) 3 |
11,041 |
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--volume in millions of fine troy ounces |
261.499 |
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(5) other reserve assets (specify) |
5,236 |
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--financial derivatives |
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--loans to nonbank nonresidents |
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--other (foreign currency assets invested through reverse repurchase agreements) |
5,236 |
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B. Other foreign currency assets (specify) |
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--securities not included in official reserve assets |
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--deposits not included in official reserve assets |
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--loans not included in official reserve assets |
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--financial derivatives not included in official reserve assets |
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--gold not included in official reserve assets |
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--other |
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read more
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Treasury Releases TARP Warrant Disposition Report
January 20, 2010--The US Department of the Treasury today released a TARP Warrant Disposition Report. This report provides an overview of the warrants received by Treasury under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as of December 31, 2009 and an explanation of the warrant disposition process and the results achieved on behalf of taxpayers.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) requires that Treasury receive warrants in connection with the purchase of troubled assets.
A major part of the TARP was the CPP. It was created in October 2008 to stabilize the financial system by providing capital to viable banks of all sizes nationwide. Under this program, Treasury invested $205 billion in 707 banks.
Under the CPP, Treasury purchased shares of senior preferred stock or other securities from qualifying U.S.-controlled banks, savings associations, and other financial institutions. As part of its investment, Treasury also received warrants to purchase shares of common stock or other securities from the banks. The purpose of the warrants was to provide taxpayers with an additional potential return on the government's investment.
To date, the disposition of warrants has succeeded in significantly increasing taxpayer returns on the CPP preferred investments that have been repaid. As of December 31, 2009, Treasury has received $4 billion in gross proceeds on the disposition of warrants in 34 banks, consisting of (i) $2.9 billion from repurchases by the issuers at agreed upon fair market values and (ii) $1.1 billion from auctions.1 For those 34 institutions, Treasury received an absolute return of 3.1% from dividends and an added 5.7% return from the sale of the warrants for a total absolute return of 8.8%.2 These returns are not predictive of the eventual return on the entire CPP portfolio.
When a bank repays the CPP investment, it has the right to repurchase its warrants at an agreed upon fair market value. The warrants do not trade on any market and do not have observable market prices. Accordingly, Treasury has established a methodology for evaluating a company's determination of fair market value. If a bank chooses not to repurchase its warrants, then Treasury intends to sell the warrants to a third party.
The first CPP warrant repurchase was completed in May 2009, and Treasury began the public sale of warrants to third parties in December 2009. Treasury follows a consistent process to dispose of the CPP warrants for all banks, regardless of the size of the institution or the warrant position. This process is designed to ensure that taxpayers receive fair market value for the CPP warrants whether they are repurchased by the issuer or sold to a third party.
At the end of 2009, Treasury held warrants in 18 institutions that have fully redeemed the CPP investment, and Treasury intends to sell those positions in the near future. Treasury also holds warrants in 230 public companies that have not repaid the CPP investments. In addition, Treasury also holds warrants in public companies in connection with other TARP programs, such as the Targeted Investment Program (TIP) and the Asset Guarantee Program (AGP). For example, Treasury holds warrants in Bank of America Corporation associated with both CPP (121,792,790 shares with an exercise price of $30.79) and TIP (150,375,940 shares with an exercise price of $13.30). Treasury's disposition process is the same for warrants acquired under all TARP programs.
view the full Warrant Disposition Report
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Schwab Expands Portfolio Advisory Program
New Family of Professionally Managed Diversified Investment Portfolios, Schwab Managed Portfolios™ – ETFs
January 19, 2010--Schwab today announced the immediate availability of six new managed portfolios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) available through a low cost fee-based portfolio advisory program. The new portfolios are the latest addition to a broad range of professionally managed investment solutions available to Schwab clients seeking advice.
Schwab Managed Portfolios-ETFs are made up of diversified ETF holdings representing up to 19 core sub-asset classes and make it easy and affordable for the individual investor to get broad diversification in a single account that is professionally managed. By holding potentially as many as two dozen different ETFs, Schwab Managed Portfolios-ETFs offer diversification across all the major equity and fixed income asset classes, as well as TIPs, real estate and commodities. Portfolio managers make ongoing adjustments to take advantage of market opportunities while controlling risk. In addition, the portfolios are rebalanced as needed to maintain the investor’s target asset allocation.
The portfolios have an investment minimum of $100,000 and a program management fee of 0.75% for the first $500,000 in assets, 0.65% for the next $500,000 in assets, and 0.50% for assets over $1 million.
“Investors today are looking for more help managing the risk in their investments while striving for an appropriate level of return that helps them get the most out of their money,” said Ben Brigeman, Executive Vice President for Investor Services. “These portfolios provide highly sophisticated asset allocation and diversification – benefits that used to be available only to the few and at considerable cost – to a much wider segment of the public.”
The new Schwab Managed Portfolios - ETFs follow other recent initiatives at Schwab designed to provide greater value for clients, including the launch of Schwab ETFs, which trade commission-free online through Schwab accounts, and the reduction of operating expense ratios for Schwab Equity Index Funds.
Source: Charles Schwab
PowerShares To Launch 10 New Small-Cap ETFs
January 19, 2010--ETF issuer PowerShares has filed plans to launch 10 new small-cap ETFs. The sectors that will be represented will include: Consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, information technology, materials, telecom and utilities.
The new ETFs will track various S&P SmallCap indexes, which track stocks with market caps ranging from $250 million to $1.2 billion.
BM&FBOVESPA Launches Foreign Exchange Non-Deliverable Forward Contract
January 19, 2010--The Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange – BM&FBOVESPA has authorized, as of January 18, the registration of dollar, euro, yen, and cross-rate non-deliverable forward contracts in its OTC market.
Initially, only foreign exchange transactions established by the Brazilian Central Bank can be registered. As of March 1, BM&FBOVESPA will also authorize the registration of transactions with exchange rates calculated by the following information sources: U.S. Dollar/Euro parity exchange rate calculated and published by the European Central Bank; U.S Dollar/Euro exchange rate fixed by WMR/Reuters; Japanese Yen/U.S. Dollar parity exchange rate calculated and published by the Central Bank of Japan; and Japanese Yen/U.S. Dollar exchange rate fixed by WMR/Reuters.
read more
Source: BM&FBOVESPA
S&P Extends International Family Of Strategy Indices To Canada With Launch Of S&P/TSX 60 130/30 Strategy Index - Licenses AlphaPro Management Inc. To Create, Launch Products Based Upon The Index
January 19, 2010--Industry leader Standard & Poor's continues to offer innovative products, launching the S&P/TSX 60 130/30 Strategy Index today in Canada. With the S&P/TSX 60 as its foundation, the new index utilizes an index strategy which gives additional weighting to top performing constituents and decreased position to the weakest performing stocks in the Index. While traditional equity indices passively monitor market performance, the S&P/TSX 60 130/30 establishes over- and underweight positions providing an advantageous weighting of index components with the prospect of outperformance.
S&P Indices also announced today that it has licensed AlphaPro Management Inc. to create and launch an ETF based upon the S&P/TSX 60 130/30.
To determine overweight and underweight positions in the Index, Standard & Poor's employs a transparent, rules-driven framework leveraging quantitative and qualitative factors, including capitalization rate, earnings quality and equity analyst recommendations, and divides the index into two baskets. Constituents of the overweight basket each have their weights increased by three percent relative to the S&P/TSX 60, while stocks in the under-weight basket each have their weights decreased by three percent relative to the S&P/TSX 60. The S&P/TSX 60 130/30 Strategy Index is rebalanced quarterly to minimize turnover and volatility.
"As Canadians and investors around the world face a new financial reality in 2010, the appetite for efficient exposure to a strategic index approach grows," says Srikant Dash, Head of Global Research and Design at S&P Indices. "The introduction of the S&P/TSX 60 130/30, S&P Indices first index of its kind for the Canadian market, provides risk-controlled, long/short exposure in a transparent, cost-efficient format."
S&P Indices currently offers the S&P 500 130/30 Strategy Index, as well as other Strategy Indices such as the S&P 500 Risk Control Indices and the S&P 500 VIX Futures Index Series.
A white paper on 130/30 Indexation, as well as the methodology document for the S&P/TSX 60 130/30 Strategy Index, can be accessed by going to: www.strategyindices.standardandpoors.com and then clicking on the index name.
For more information about S&P Indices, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.
ource: Standard & Poors
Claymore files with the SEC
January 19, 2010--Claymore has filed for exemptive relief with the SEC.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
EGA Emerging Global Shares Trust files with the SEC
January 19, 2010--EGA Emerging Global Shares Trust has filed a prospectus with the SEC for the following
Emerging Global Shares INDXX India Infrastructure Index Fund
Cusip: 268461845 -NYSE Ticker: INXX
Emerging Global Shares INDXX China Infrastructure Index Fund
CUSIP:268461837 -NYSE Ticker: CHXX
Emerging Global Shares INDXX Brazil Infrastructure Index Fund
Cusip: 268461829 -NYSE Ticker: BRXX
Emerging Global Shares INDXX India Mid Cap Index Fund
Cusip: 268461811 -NYSE Ticker: INMC
Emerging Global Shares INDXX China Mid Cap Index Fund
Cusip: 268461795 -NYSE Ticker:CHMC
Emerging Global Shares INDXX Brazil Mid Cap Index Fund
Cusip: 268461787 -NYSE Ticker:BZMC
view filing
Source: SEC.gov