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Fidelity Posts Record Revenue, Profit Despite Market Swoon
February 21, 2019--Firm's operating income rose 19% to $6.3 billion in 2018, and revenue increased 12% to $20.4 billion
Fidelity Investments posted record operating profits and revenue for a third-straight year even as a stock-market selloff late last year shrunk the value of the assets it manages for clients.
The Boston-based firm said Thursday that operating income rose 19% to $6.3 billion in 2018. Revenue jumped 12% to $20.4 billion. A market rout at the end of 2018 helped push assets under management down 1%, to $2.42 trillion.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Despite a Good Week for the Market, Equity Funds Suffer Net Redemptions
February 21, 2019--For the first week in three, investors were overall net redeemers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs), withdrawing $9.1 billion for Lipper's fund-flows week ended February 20. 2019.
Fund investors were net purchasers of taxable fixed income funds (+$3.0 billion) and municipal bond funds (+$1.5 billion), while being net redeemers of equity funds (-$1.8 billion) and money market funds (-$11.7 billion).
Market Wrap-Up
Markets generally continued their upward trek during the fund-flows week, cheering comments from a kinder, gentler Federal Reserve Board, increased optimism around a China/U.S. trade agreement, and improving economic reports. While the NASDAQ Composite Price Only Index (+0.93%) managed to string together its eighth consecutive upside session, the Russell 2000 Price Only Index (+2.51%) posted the strongest returns of the broad-based U.S. indices for the flows week, followed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average Price Only Index's 1.61% and the S&P 500 Price Only Index’s 1.15% plus-side returns.
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Source: Refinitiv
The FORUM at ETF Research Center-Stock Locator Enhanced with Mutual Fund Data
February 21, 2019--Reducing single-stock risk through diversification is one of the most important benefits delivered to investors by mutual funds and ETFs. Yet these funds often have exposure to a stock that can run well into double-digits, meaning that when the stock takes a big hit-say due to an earnings miss-investors in those funds are going to notice!
Our Stock Locator tool has long helped investors quickly find which ETFs hold a given stock, and how much exposure each fund has. Now we’ve added the holdings data for U.S. equity mutual funds, so you can see who else might have exposure to the stock you’re watching.
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Source: AltaVista Research
SPIKES Options Launched on MIAX
February 21, 2019--MIAX Options Executes Strategy to Transform Market as First True Competitor in Volatility Space
MIAX Options(R) on Tuesday began its first day of volatility options trading on the SPIKESTM Index (Ticker: SPIKE), an index designed with a fully-transparent process featuring pinpoint accuracy and radically faster dissemination.
SPIKES is a measure of the expected 30-day volatility in the SPDR(R) S&P 500(R) ETF (SPY), the most actively-traded exchange traded fund in the world, and was developed by T3 Index (T3), a firm that develops proprietary indexes.
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Source: MIAX
Merk Investments hires VP of Gold & Precious Metals Peter Maletis
February 21, 2019--Merk Investments(R) announced today that it has hired Peter Maletis as Vice President-Gold & Precious Metals Research. Mr. Maletis will be a member of Merk's Portfolio Management Group, primarily focusing on gold and precious metals companies.
"We are thrilled to have Peter join Merk to lead our gold and precious metals research group. He knows the industry like few others: he knows the management teams; he has visited sites in over 30 countries; he appreciates the capital requirements of the industry; and, importantly, he knows how to put it all together to manage gold and precious metals portfolios," explains Axel Merk, President and Chief Investment Officer of Merk.
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Source: Merk Investments
Insurers Are Still Wary of ETFs Despite Regulatory Overhaul
February 21, 2019--Almost 40% avoid using the funds, according to a new study
A change in rules was expected to boost use of debt ETFs
Many insurance companies are steering clear of exchange-traded funds even after a high profile rule change designed to make them easier to own.
Almost 40 percent of insurers aren't using ETFs more than a year after the National Association of Insurance Commissioners rewrote its accounting rules in an attempt to loosen the restrictions, according to a new survey sponsored by State Street Corp. and conducted by Greenwich Associates. For more than a third of non-users, internal policies and state regulations are to blame, the study showed.
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Source: Bloomberg
Weak U.S. data underscore growing headwinds to economy
February 21, 2019--New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly fell in December amid declining demand for machinery and primary metals, pointing to a sustained slowdown in business spending on equipment that could further crimp economic growth.
The economy's outlook was also dimmed by other reports on Thursday showing a measure of factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in February for the first time since May 2016 and home resales plunging to a more than three-year low in January.
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Source: Reuters
Mutual Funds Attract Net New Money in January, While ETFs Suffer Net Redemptions
February 20, 2019--For the second month in three, investors were net purchasers of mutual fund assets, injecting $36.9 billion into the conventional funds business (excluding ETFs, which are reviewed in the section below) for January. Investors warmed to improved trade talks between the U.S. and China and more dovish Federal Reserve Board comments, pushing U.S. stocks to their best January returns in three decades.
For the first month in a four, the fixed income funds macro-group witnessed net inflows, taking in $15.1 billion for the month. And for the first month in nine, stock & mixed-asset funds witnessed net inflows (+$14.1 billion) for January, their largest monthly net inflows since March 2015. Money market funds (+$7.7 billion), for their fourth consecutive month of inflows, took in the smallest net inflows of the three broad-based macro-groups in the open-end fund universe.
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Source: Refinitiv
CFTC.gov Swaps Report Update
February 20, 2019--CFTC's Weekly Swaps Report has been updated, and is now available
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Source: CFTC.gov
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, January 29-30, 2019
February 20, 2019--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on January 29-30, 2019.
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Source: federalreserve.gov