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Wisdom Tree files with the SEC
June 30, 2010--Wisdom Tree has filed an application for exemptive relief with the SEC.
The Amended ETF Order would permit:
existing and future Applicant Funds (as defined herein) to operate as “funds of funds” to the extent consistent with then applicable exemptive relief; and
existing and future Applicant Funds to offer and operate a distribution reinvestment program that would permit investors to reinvest distributions at the net asset value on the date of the distribution.
U.S. One plans three new ETFs
June 30, 2010--A recent entrant to the world of exchange-traded funds is looking to launch new funds, including one that’s similar to a target date strategy.
U.S. One launched its first ETF, the One Fund (ONEF), on May 11. The actively managed ETF essentially acts as a model portfolio of ETFs and is composed of a portfolio of global equity index-based ETFs managed by The Vanguard Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc.
Once that fund hits $35 million in assets, U.S. One plans to file for three additional funds: a global-fixed-income ETF; a balanced ETF and a series of portfolios that will mimic target date funds.
KBW Announces Change to KBW Capital Markets Index
June 30, 2010--Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., a full-service investment bank that specializes in the financial services sector, and a wholly owned subsidiary of KBW, Inc., announces upcoming change to the KBW Capital Markets Index.
Effective prior to the opening of business on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, Stifel Financial Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!sf/quotes/nls/sf (SF 43.39, -0.16, -0.37%) will undergo an increase in shares to account for its acquisition of Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!twpg/quotes/nls/twpg (TWPG 5.89, -0.04, -0.67%) .
The KBW indices that have tradable exchange traded funds are: KBW Bank Index (Index Symbol: BKX(SM), ETF Symbol KBE(SM)); KBW Capital Markets Index (Index Symbol: KSX(SM), ETF Symbol KCE(SM)); KBW Insurance Index (Index Symbol: KIX(SM), ETF Symbol KIE(SM)); KBW Mortgage Finance Index (Index Symbol: MFX(SM), ETF Symbol: KME(SM)); and KBW Regional Banking Index (Index Symbol: KRX(SM), ETF Symbol: KRE(SM), KRS(SM), KRU(SM)).
Invesco PowerShares Announces Index and Name Changes for Five ETF Portfolios
June 30, 2010-- Invesco PowerShares, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today that five existing portfolios will undergo index and name changes effective June 30, 2010. The following five ETF portfolios are affected by this change. The corresponding ticker symbols will remain the same.
PowerShares Autonomic Growth NFA Global Asset (NYSE Arca: PTO)
PowerShares Autonomic Balanced Growth NFA Global Asset (NYSE Arca: PAO)
PowerShares Autonomic Balanced NFA Global Asset (NYSE Arca: PCA)
PowerShares Value Line Timeliness Select (NYSE Arca: PIV)
PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation (NYSE Arca: PYH)
"As an innovative leader in the ETF industry, we are continually looking for ways to improve our product lineup," said Ben Fulton, Invesco PowerShares managing director of global ETFs. "We believe the new indexes will better align the portfolios with the changing investment landscape, provide investors with the potential for improved risk-adjusted returns, and position our family of ETFs for continued growth."
The new portfolio names and indexes for the five ETFs are listed below.
| Former Portfolio Name | New Portfolio Name | Former Index | New Index |
| PowerShares Autonomic Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio | PowerShares Ibbotson Alternative Completion Portfolio | New Frontier Global Dynamic Growth Index | Ibbotson Alternative Completion Index™ |
| PowerShares Autonomic Balanced Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio | PowerShares RiverFront Tactical Balanced Growth Portfolio | New Frontier Global Dynamic Balanced Growth Index | RiverFront Global Tactical Balanced Growth Index™ |
| PowerShares Autonomic Balanced NFA Global Asset Portfolio | PowerShares RiverFront Tactical Growth & Income Portfolio | New Frontier Global Dynamic Balanced Index | RiverFront Global Tactical Balanced Growth & Income Index™ |
| PowerShares Value Line Timeliness Select Portfolio | PowerShares S&P 500 High Quality Portfolio | Value Line Timeliness Select Index | S&P 500® High Quality Rankings Index |
| PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation Portfolio | PowerShares Morningstar StockInvestor Core Portfolio | Value Line Industry Rotation Index | Morningstar StockInvestor Core Index |
CBOE Expands Weekly Options By One Day
Allows Traders To More Easily "Roll" From One Weekly Expiration To Another
June 30, 2010--The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today announced that as of Thursday, July 1, all new Weekly options series listed at CBOE will begin trading on Thursdays and expire the following Friday. Prior to this change, new series were listed on Fridays. The additional day will expand market participants' ability to roll trades from one Weekly expiration to the next Weekly expiration.
Weekly options, first introduced by CBOE in 2005, are one-week options that expire at the end of a week unless an options expiration already exists. Except for the expiration date, Weeklys generally have the same contract specifications and offer the same continuous, two-sided quotes as standard options.
Trading volume in Weekly index options at CBOE continues to grow. Average daily volume (ADV) for Weekly index options in May 2010 totaled 55,373 contracts, compared to 17,709 contracts ADV in May 2009 and 6,673 contracts ADV in May 2008.
Earlier this month, CBOE added new Weekly options on several exchange traded funds (ETFs) and individual equities. For an up-to-date list of Weeklys offered by CBOE and contract specifications, see www.cboe.com/weeklys.
SEC Adopts New Measures to Curtail Pay to Play Practices by Investment Advisers
June 30, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to approve new rules to significantly curtail the corrupting influence of "pay to play" practices by investment advisers.
Pay to play is the practice of making campaign contributions and related payments to elected officials in order to influence the awarding of lucrative contracts for the management of public pension plan assets and similar government investment accounts. The rule adopted by the SEC today includes prohibitions intended to capture not only direct political contributions by investment advisers, but also other ways that advisers may engage in pay to play arrangements.
"The selection of investment advisers to manage public plans should be based on the best interests of the plans and their beneficiaries, not kickbacks and favors," said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. "These new rules will help level the playing field, allowing advisers of all sizes to compete for government contracts based on investment skill and quality of service."
The new SEC rule has three key elements:
It prohibits an investment adviser from providing advisory services for compensation — either directly or through a pooled investment vehicle — for two years, if the adviser or certain of its executives or employees make a political contribution to an elected official who is in a position to influence the selection of the adviser.
U.S. International Reserve Position
June 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 $124,970 million as of the end of that week, compared to $124,700 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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June 25, 2010 |
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A. Official reserve assets (in US millions unless otherwise specified) 1 |
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124,970 |
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(1) Foreign currency reserves (in convertible foreign currencies) |
Euro |
Yen |
Total |
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(a) Securities |
8,781 |
14,537 |
23,319 |
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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 |
12,865 |
7,141 |
20,006 |
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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 |
11,630 |
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(3) SDRs 2 |
54,426 |
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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) |
4,547 |
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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) |
4,547 |
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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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Claymore Launches First Ever Inverse Government of Canada Bond ETF
June 29, 2010--Claymore Investments, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent
exchange?traded funds (“ETFs”) in Canada, is pleased to announce the launch of the Claymore Inverse
10 Yr Government Bond ETF (CIB:TSX).
The Claymore Inverse 10 Yr Government Bond ETF has been designed to replicate the inverse
(opposite) of the daily total return before fees, expenses, and transaction costs of the 10 Year
Government of Canada Bond on a non-leveraged basis (1:1 ratio of the assets to notional exposure).
“As we eventually move into a rising rate environment in Canada, investors will need tools to help manage their fixed income exposure for both the near and long term.” said Som Seif, President & CEO of Claymore Investments, Inc. “The Claymore Inverse 10 Yr Government Bond ETF is a tool for investors who are looking to hedge against potential effects of rising interest rates, without necessarily having to sell their current bond investments. This launch is part of our commitment to provide intelligent, low cost, and efficient investment solutions for investors.”
The 10 Year Government of Canada Bond means any bond(s) issued by the Government of Canada
(exclusive of any Crown Corporations, Provincial bonds or Municipal bonds) consisting of semi-annual
pay fixed rate bonds denominated in Canadian dollars originally issued at 10 year auctions, with an
effective term to maturity of 8 – 10½ years, a credit rating of at least BBB and minimum issue size of $3.5
billion.
Jefferies files with the SEC
june 29, 2010--Jeffries has filed an amendment to Form S-1 for
Jefferies Commodity Real Return ETF
view filing
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® Drops Sharply
June 29, 2010--The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® which had been on the rise for three consecutive months, declined sharply in June. The Index now stands at 52.9 (1985=100), down from 62.7 in May. The Present Situation Index decreased to 25.5 from 29.8. The Expectations Index declined to 71.2 from 84.6 last month.
The Consumer Confidence Survey® is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world’s largest custom research company. The cutoff date for June’s preliminary results was June 22nd.
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “Consumer confidence, which had posted three consecutive monthly gains and appeared to be gaining some traction, retreated sharply in June. Increasing uncertainty and apprehension about the future state of the economy and labor market, no doubt a result of the recent slowdown in job growth, are the primary reasons for the sharp reversal in confidence. Until the pace of job growth picks up, consumer confidence is not likely to pick up.”
Active funds found to outperform in bull markets
June 29, 2010--Active fund managers do outperform in many circumstances, including most bull markets, a study of 30 years of performance for $7,000bn worth of US mutual funds has found.
The study by FundQuest, which advises fund managers, compared 31,991 US-based mutual funds, including funds that failed, in 73 different categories as defined by Morningstar, to matching passive indices.
The study’s broadest finding – based on an analysis of five market cycles from January 1980 until February 2010 – was that after adjusting for risk and after fees, active management delivers superior returns in bull markets, but underperforms in bear markets. Active managers outperform by 0.66 per cent in bull markets, but underperformed by 0.68 per cent in bear markets.
Aluminum ETF Girds For Launch
June 29, 2010--An exchange-traded fund based on aluminum could launch as soon as next month, according to a Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg reported that the CEO of United Co. Rusal, the worlds largest aluminum producer, told reporters that the ETF would launch next month, and could help support metal prices as a hedge against currency and commodity price fluctuations.
US ETF assets down 5.8 pct in month ended May-ICI
June 29, 2010--Assets traded in the U.S.
exchange traded funds (ETFs) universe fell 5.8 percent in May
to $783 billion, monthly data issued by the Investment Company
Institute showed on Tuesday.
For the year ended May, however, ICI, the mutual fund
industry's trade group, said ETF assets grew by 34.6 percent or
$201.13 billion.
Equity ETF assets fell while bonds rose, the data showed.
Vanguard plans broad expansion of index offerings
June 28, 2010-On June 24, 2010, Vanguard has announced plans to introduce 19 new index funds with ETF Shares. The firm will also launch ETF Shares of its flagship Vanguard® 500 Index Fund.
Included in this list are 15 new equity funds and an international real estate fund for institutional investors. Over the next year, these funds will provide institutions with equity portfolios benchmarked to a broader range of providers and with a new diversification tool through the international real estate fund.
The 16 funds and the share classes available for institutional investments are:
| Fund | Institutional Shares | Investor Shares | Signal Shares® |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanguard S&P 500 Value Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Index Fund | 0.08% |
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| Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Value Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 1000 Value Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 2000 Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 2000 Value Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 2000 Growth Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Russell 3000 Index Fund | 0.08% | ||
| Vanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate Index Fund | 0.30% | 0.50% | 0.30% |
"We recognize that institutional investors have an affinity for certain benchmarks, and our goal is to offer them best-in-class funds based on a choice of leading index providers, including MSCI, FTSE, Russell, and S&P," said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb. "Vanguard's focus has been on developing a full array of stock and bond funds to cover domestic and international markets and market segments. We are taking this logical next step to provide multiple options within the domestic stock markets and more choice for bond investors."
Vanguard is adding seven new equity funds offering exposure to value, growth, and blend segments of the U.S. stock market based on the large cap Russell 1000® Index and the small cap Russell 2000® Index series. We will also offer a broad market fund pegged to the Russell 3000® Index. In addition, Vanguard will complete its S&P lineup with eight new equity funds pegged to the growth and value segments of the S&P 500 Index and to the growth, value, and blend segments of the S&P MidCap 400 and SmallCap 600 Indexes.
The new international fund, Vanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate Index Fund, will be benchmarked to the S&P Global ex-U.S. Property Index.
"We believe that there is a compelling investment case to offer international real estate. This asset class has the potential to improve returns and dampen volatility for an investor's total investment portfolio," said Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter.
U.S. Exchanges Said to Seek Broader Scope for Trading Curbs
June 28, 2010--U.S. stock exchanges will propose doubling the number of companies covered by a two-week-old test of trading curbs and expanding the program to include hundreds of exchange-traded funds, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. will ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to broaden circuit breakers triggered by 10 percent moves to Russell 1000 Index companies from those in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. More than 300 ETFs including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust would be covered, one of the people said.
