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US economy grew modestly last quarter against a hazy outlook
January 30, 2020--The U.S. economy expanded at a moderate 2.1% annual rate in the final three months of 2019, capping a year when a weak global landscape and a sharp pullback in business investment resulting from President Donald Trump’s trade fights combined to slow growth.
The fourth-quarter rise in the gross domestic product-the economy's total output of goods and services-matched the third-quarter gain, the government said Thursday. For all of last year, economic growth-2.3%-was the weakest since Trump's election in 2016.
The picture that emerged Thursday from the government's first estimate of growth in the October-December quarter was a mixed one: Consumers kept spending, but they have grown more cautious. Incomes are rising but at a slower pace. Most alarmingly, businesses have been sharply reducing their investment as Trump’s ongoing trade fights have heightened uncertainty for corporations.
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Source: apnews.com
CBO-The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2020 to 2030
January 28, 2020--In CBO's projections of the outlook under current law, deficits remain large by historical standards, federal debt grows to 98 percent of GDP by 2030, and the economy expands at an average annual rate of 1.7 percent from 2021 to 2030.
CBO regularly publishes reports that present projections of what federal deficits, debt, revenues, and spending-and the economic path underlying them-would be for the current year and for the following 10 years and beyond if existing laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged.
This report is the latest in that series-and it shows a cumulative 10-year deficit that is slightly larger and a cumulative 30-year deficit that is notably larger than those in CBO's previous projections.
The Budget
In CBO's projections, the federal budget deficit is $1.0 trillion in 2020 and averages $1.3 trillion between 2021 and 2030.
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Source: CBO (congressional Bidget Office)
Evolve Announces Certain Fund Closures
January 27, 2020--Evolve Funds Group Inc. ("Evolve" or the "Manager") announces that it will terminate Evolve North American Gender Diversity Index Fund (TSX: HERS and HERS.B), Evolve Marijuana Fund (TSX: SEED) and the Evolve U.S. Marijuana ETF (NEO: USMJ) on or about March 30, 2020 (the "Termination Date").
Evolve will request the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") and the NEO Exchange Inc. ("NEO") to de-list the units of the Funds from the TSX and NEO on or about March 26, 2020, with all units still held by investors being subject to a mandatory redemption as of the Termination Date. Effective February 26, 2020, no further subscriptions for units of the Funds will be accepted.
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Source: Evolve ETFs
The Nottingham Company Licenses Blue Tractor's Shielded AlphaSM ETF Structure
January 23, 2020--Nottingham now positioned to offer advisors a novel ETF structure for active portfolio management that fully obfuscates their "secret sauce"
The Nottingham Company, Inc. ("Nottingham"), a leading fund services administrator to the mutual fund and exchange-traded fund ("ETF") industry, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a license agreement with New York-based Blue Tractor Group, LLC ("Blue Tractor") for their novel Shielded AlphaSM ETF structure.
Through this agreement, sub-advisors managing active portfolio strategies will be able to issue their own branded Shielded AlphaSM ETFs through Nottingham's white-label ETF investment advisor affiliate, OBP Capital LLC.
Kip Meadows, Founder and CEO of Nottingham, commented, “We are pleased to have entered into a license with Blue Tractor. Our research into the new non-transparent vehicles convinced us that the Shielded AlphaSM ETF structure offers unique features and benefits to advisors and investors alike. We believe the strong growth seen with actively managed ETFs will continue and we are happy to be able to offer current and prospective clients of Nottingham access to this unique ETF wrapper.”
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Source: Blue Tractor Group
Pacer ETFs Acquires Second Fund, Builds on 2019 Momentum
January 23, 2020--Firm adds fund with exposure to Chinese companies
Pacer ETFs ("Pacer"), an ETF provider that offers strategy-driven, rules-based ETFs, has announced the acquisition of the CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF (ticker: AFTY). This is Pacer's second acquisition of an existing ETF in two months. Effective immediately, the fund will be renamed to Pacer CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF and the fund's ticker will remain the same.
The Pacer CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF (AFTY) seeks to track the FTSE China A50 Net Total Return Index and offers exposure to the 50 largest companies in the China A-Shares market. This index only trades A-shares which are distinct in that only companies incorporated in Mainland China and listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen exchange are included.
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Source: Pacer ETFs
Day Hagan and Ned Davis Research Launch First Joint ETF: Smart SectorTM With Catastrophic Stop
January 21, 2020--Ned Davis Research (NDR), a global provider of independent investment research insights, tools and solutions, in partnership with Day Hagan Asset Management (Day Hagan), today announced the launch of their first co-developed ETF, Smart SectorTM With Catastrophic Stop (NYSE: SSUS), which takes advantage of NDR's proprietary sector and U.S. Stock Market models.
The Smart SectorTM With Catastrophic Stop strategy is designed to enhance returns over a buy-and-hold, equity benchmark by overweighting and underweighting 11 U.S. large-cap sectors based on NDR's sector models. Each of the models utilizes sector specific, weight of the evidence composites of technical, fundamental, economic, and behavior-based indicators to determine each sector's probability of outperforming.
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Source: Ned Davis Research (NDR); Day Hagan Asset Management
Are We Heading Toward Another Lost Decade for Latin America?
January 21, 2020--According to World Bank data, between 2000 and 2019, average annual growth in the Latin American and Caribbean region was 1.6%. That level of growth is clearly unacceptable both if we compare it with growth in other regions-East Asia (4.8%), Europe and Central Asia (1.9%), the Middle East (2.9%), South (6.5%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (3.5%)-as well as if we put it in per capita terms, where the rate would be 0.56%, insufficient to rapidly improve living standards for the population.
It should come as no surprise then that the decade ended with protests in several Latin American countries, especially if we view these protests as an expression of the discontent with an economy that does not grow fast enough to satisfy society’s demands and expectations and with an inequality gap that remains too high, although it has decreased over the past decade (this region has the highest level of regional inequality in the world).
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Source: World Bank
Bitwise Withdraws Long-Standing Bitcoin ETF Application
January 15, 2020--A Jan. 14 form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirms that Bitwise Asset Management requested the withdrawal of its application for a Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). This is the second major ETF withdrawal in recent months following similar actions by VanEck.
Bitwise applied for ETF registration in January 2019. In March of the same year, it had released the Bitwise Report on exchange volume, claiming that 95% of trading volume is fabricated.
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Source: SEC.gov
Beige Book-January 15, 2020
January 15, 2020--Overall Economic Activity
Economic activity generally continued to expand modestly in the final six weeks of 2019. The Dallas and Richmond Districts noted above-average growth, while Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Kansas City reported sub-par growth. Consumer spending grew at a modest to moderate pace, with a number of Districts noting some pickup from the prior reporting period.
On balance, holiday sales were said to be solid, with several Districts noting the growing importance of online shopping. Vehicle sales generally expanded moderately, though a handful of Districts reported flat sales. Tourism was mixed, with growth reported in the eastern seaboard Districts but activity little changed in the Midwest and West. Manufacturing activity was essentially flat in most Districts, as in the previous report. Business in nonfinancial services was mixed but, on balance, growing modestly. Transportation activity was also mixed across Districts, with a majority reporting flat to weaker activity. Banks mostly characterized loan volume as steady to expanding moderately. Home sales trends varied widely across Districts but were flat overall, while residential rental markets strengthened.
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Source: federalreserve.gov
Technology ETF debuts from iShares
January 13, 2020--iShares has brought to NYSE Arca an exchange-traded fund that invests in cutting-edge technology.
The iShares US Tech Breakthrough Multisector ETF tracks an index of companies involved in financial technology, robotics and artificial intelligence, cloud and data technology, cybersecurity, and genomics and immunology.
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Source: smartbrief.com
