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NASDAQ Closing Cross Had a Record Day for the Seventh Year on Russell Index Reconstitution
June 25, 2010--he NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) today announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross had a record day today as it was used to reconfigure the entire family of U.S. Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution.
A record 1.042 billion shares representing $11.2 billion were executed in the Closing Cross in 0.85 seconds across some 2,942 NASDAQ-listed stocks. This compares with 1.002 billion shares representing $9.3 billion executed in 2.9 seconds during Russell's annual reconstitution in 2009.
NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross are widely used throughout the industry, including by Russell Investments, Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country.
"For the past seven years, market makers, index providers, mutual fund managers and the investing public have consistently demonstrated their confidence in NASDAQ’s leading price discovery facility,” said Eric Noll, Executive Vice President of Transaction Services, NASDAQ OMX. “The NASDAQ Closing Cross had another record-breaking performance during one of the heaviest trading sessions of year due to NASDAQ’s speed, market integrity and the reliability of our global technology platform.”
The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ, NYSE and NYSE Amex stocks and executes all shares for each stock at a single price, one that reflects the true supply and demand for these securities. All nationally-listed securities are eligible for the NASDAQ Closing Cross.
The Russell U.S. Indexes include only common stocks incorporated in the U.S., its territories, and certain countries or regions offering U.S. companies operational, tax, political or other financial benefits. All U.S. indexes are subsets of the Russell 3000E™ Index, which represents approximately 99% of the U.S. equity market. Russell U.S. Indexes allow investors to track current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large cap/small cap) or investment style (growth/value). Today, more than $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes.
Russell reconstitution day is usually one of the most highly anticipated and heaviest trading days in the U.S. equity market as asset managers seek to reconfigure their portfolios to reflect the composition of Russell's U.S. indexes. The index reconstitution process was completed today and the newly reconstituted index membership will take effect before markets open on Monday, June 28, 2010.
For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose.
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
June 25, 2010--The CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports for the week of June 22, 2010 are now available.
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U.S. Department of the Treasury Economic Statistics - Quarterly Data Update
June 25, 2010--The Quarterly Data for U.S. Department of the Treasury has recently been updated, and is now available.
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State Street files with the SEC
June 25, 2010--State Street has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the
SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources ETF
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Vanguard files with SEC
June 25, 2010--Vanguard has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
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Vanguard to launch 19 new funds, with ETF options
June 24, 2010--Vanguard said Thursday it will expand its index investment offerings with 19 new mutual funds, each with an exchange-traded fund version holding the same stocks or bonds as the companion mutual fund.
The nation's largest fund company also is launching an ETF version of its S&P 500 Index fund, which Vanguard introduced in 1976 and now holds $91 billion.
Vanguard filed applications with regulators to offer the funds, and hopes to have them on the market by the fall, said Melissa Nassar, a principal in Vanguard's financial adviser services group.
While the ETFs will be accessible to individual investors, the new mutual funds are geared toward institutional clients and financial advisers, since they require minimum investments of $5 million.
Each of the funds and companion ETFs will invest in segments of the stock and bond markets not already covered by Vanguard's existing lineup of more than 160 mutual funds and 46 ETFs — for example, the S&P 500 value index or the Russell 2000 growth index. Sixteen of the new funds will invest in stocks. Three of the new offerings are bond funds, focused on municipal bonds with short-, intermediate and long-term maturities.
BlackRock proposes changes to iShares S&P/TSX Income Trust Index Fund
June 24, 2010--BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc., announced today that it has called a special meeting of unitholders of the iShares(R) S&P(R)/TSX(R) Income Trust Index to be held on August 23, 2010, to approve changes to the exchange traded fund's (ETF) investment objective and certain related matters.
"At iShares, we are constantly seeking solutions to better meet the needs of investors," said Oliver McMahon, director of product management for iShares ETFs at BlackRock Canada.
"As income trusts assess their conversion strategies in time for the January 2011 deadline, we believe that making this change will ensure investors receive a reliable income stream while still enjoying the benefits they've come to associate with iShares ETFs including diversification, transparency, lower costs, tax efficiency and the ability to use value-adding trading strategies such as limit and stop orders."
Summary of changes to investment objective
BlackRock Canada is proposing to change the investment objective of XTR from its current investment objective of seeking to provide long-term capital growth by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index (Index) to an investment objective of seeking to provide unitholders with a consistent monthly cash distribution, with the potential for some modest capital growth, through investment in a diversified portfolio of income-bearing investments. XTR's investment strategy would change from investing primarily in issuers which make up the Index to a fund strategy, whereby XTR would seek to achieve its investment objective by holding a portfolio of income-bearing ETFs.
CFTC Releases Report on the Registration Program of the NFA
June 24, 2010--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight (Division) today notified the National Futures Association (NFA) of the results of the Division’s “Report on the Registration Program of the NFA”. In the Report, the Division assessed whether the NFA has sufficient procedures to execute the Commission’s delegated registration and fitness functions.
The Division found that NFA has sufficient procedures to execute the Commission’s delegated functions with respect to the vast majority of registrants. However, the Division also identified nine areas in which the Commission’s and/or NFA’s procedures must be improved.
read the Public Report on the Registration Program of the National Futures Association
Vanguard files with the SEC
June 24, 2010--Vanguard has filed a registration statement with the SEC for
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses: 0.06%
US financial reform nears finish line
June 24, 2010--A year-long financial reform effort in the US approached the finishing line on Thursday with Wall Street banks braced for an expensive restructuring intended to prevent any repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
The final days’ arguments have centred on proposed limits for derivatives dealing and the Volcker rule that prevents banks from proprietary trading and restricts their relationships with hedge funds and private equity firms.
The core of the reform is already fixed – a new resolution authority to allow the government to wind down any future failing institution like Lehman Brothers safely and without wider damage to the financial system.
AdvisorShares Announces Partnership With Cambria Investment Management
June 24, 2010--AdvisorShares Investments, LLC, a developer of and investment adviser to actively managed Exchange Traded Funds, announced today a partnership with Cambria Investment Management, Inc., a Los Angeles based investment manager, to create a GTAA strategy in an actively managed ETF. The proposed ETF would join AdvisorShares' growing stable of innovative actively managed ETFs which includes the Dent Tactical ETF (NYSE: DENT).
"Cambria has an excellent track record using their proprietary quantitative approach to investing," said Noah Hamman, CEO and Founder of AdvisorShares. "Cambria has done an outstanding job developing research and education related to a GTAA strategy via their popular white paper, 'A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation,' and their recent book, 'The Ivy Portfolio.'"
Mebane Faber, Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management said, "Buying and holding a diversified portfolio did little to protect countless investors from the global market meltdown in 2008 and 2009. In these volatile markets investors need to be more proactive in managing their risk."
Eric Richardson, Chairman and CEO of Cambria Investment Management, said, "At Cambria, our mission for our separately managed accounts and private funds has been to grow capital by seeking to produce long term absolute returns with reduced volatility and manageable risk and drawdowns."
Grail files with the SEC
June 23, 2010--Grail has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
Grail DoubleLine Emerging Markets Fixed Income ETF.
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Exchange-Traded Funds International Equity: Playing the China Currency Revaluation with ETFs
June 23, 2010--Morgan Stanley's Global Strategy Team believes the PBoC's move to de-peg the Renminbi is a longer-term positive for risky assets. In their opinion, the positive takeaways from the revaluation include:
1)Suggests China's policy makers have confidence in the sustainability of China's economic recovery
2)Should reduce inflationary pressure in China and lower the probability of aggressive policy tightening or heavy-handed credit controls
3)Should reduce risk premiums in the market stemming from fears of a trade war between the US and China
4)Promotes global rebalancing
For investors looking to capitalize on the potential longer-term positives, ETFs are available to play many of the equity, commodity and currency markets that our strategists expect to benefit from the revaluation. In many cases, the ETFs may provide more diversified exposure, relatively low cost, and greater trading flexibility than other investment vehicles.
Morgan Stanley's Chief China Economist, Qing Wang, expects a gradual appreciation of the Renminbi. His year-end USD/CNY target of 6.60, versus the current spot rate of 6.81, implies 3.1% appreciation of the Renminbi versus the USD this year. He expects a further strengthening to 6.20 by year-end 2011.
Importantly, the recent decision to revalue the Chinese currency is not a panacea. Concerns over global growth prospects and Euro-area/sovereign risks are unlikely to diminish as a result of the PBoC decision.
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Van Eck files with the SEC
June 23, 2010--Van Eck has filed a third amended and restated application for exemptive relief with the SEC. Applicants request that the Order apply to any Self Indexing Funds.
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SocGen Hires Newedge’s Ahmuty to Run ETF Trading
June 23, 2010--Societe Generale SA, France’s second-biggest bank by market value, hired Bill Ahmuty of Newedge Group as head of trading for exchange-traded funds in New York.
Ahmuty, 37, reports to Jonathan Bensimon, head of equities and derivatives trading for the Americas, according to Jim Galvin, a New York-based spokesman for Societe Generale. His job is a new position, Galvin said. Newedge is a joint venture owned equally by Paris-based Societe Generale and Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank.
ETFs in the U.S. tripled assets to $830.9 billion in April from the end of 2005, according to data compiled by the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based trade group for the fund industry. SocGen has traded 46.5 billion euros ($57.3 billion) of the securities globally in 2010, a rate implying 57 percent growth over 2009 and almost a 10-fold gain from five years ago, the firm said.
