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Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit, May 2023
May 12, 2023--Summary
The debt limit-commonly called the debt ceiling-is the maximum amount of debt that the Department of the Treasury can issue to the public or to other federal agencies. The amount is set by law and has been increased or suspended over the years to allow for the additional borrowing needed to finance the government's operations. On December 16, 2021, lawmakers raised the debt limit by $2.5 trillion to a total of $31.4 trillion.
On January 19, 2023, that limit was reached, and the Treasury announced a "debt issuance suspension period" and began using well-established "extraordinary measures" to borrow additional funds without breaching the debt ceiling.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that if the debt limit remains unchanged, there is a significant risk that at some point in the first two weeks of June, the government will no longer be able to pay all of its obligations. The extent to which the Treasury will be able to fund the government's ongoing operations will remain uncertain throughout May, even if the Treasury ultimately runs out of funds in early June. That uncertainty exists because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening weeks could differ from CBO's projections.
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Source: CBO (Congressional Budget Office)
YieldMax Launches NVDY, the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF
May 11, 2023--YieldMax announced the launch today of the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSE Arca: NVDY), which seeks to generate monthly income via a synthetic covered call strategy on NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA). NVDY is actively managed by ZEGA Financial. The fund does not invest directly in NVDA.
NVDY is the latest member of the YieldMax family and like all YieldMax ETFs, aims to deliver substantial monthly income to investors. NVDY joins existing YieldMax ETFs, TSLY, OARK and APLY, whose current yield information is here:
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Source: YieldMax
Tema launches three innovative, professionally managed thematic ETFs: American Reshoring, Luxury, & Monopolies and Oligopolies
May 11, 2023--Tema ETFs ("Tema") launches its actively managed thematic ETF offering with three strategies: American Reshoring (RSHO), Luxury (LUX) and Monopolies and Oligopolies (TOLL). These strategies are the first to address these specific themes in an actively managed ETF in the United States. A
All three strategies will seek to provide long-term growth through equity investment solely focused on their own respective themes.
"We are excited to be the first issuer to bring these innovative strategies to the US market" said Maurits Pot, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Tema Global, "We firmly believe that these themes cannot be accessed effectively through a passive indexed approach. Our thematic focus, bottom-up investment process and portfolio managers' industry expertise underpins these differentiated institutional grade ETF investment strategies. Risk management lies at the core of our active investment process, aiming to provide investors with more than just access to the theme. We monitor risk through a 3-step process, identifying risk factors, assessing risk levels, and ultimately taking aim at managing these risks."
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Source: Tema
Corporate culture ETFs aim to gain from happier employees
May 5, 2023--Companies included in indices rated for worker perceptions of autonomy, fairness and trust
The claim that a company's best assets are its people has now been built into investment strategies powering three exchange traded funds that seek to profit from the undervaluation of an employee-friendly corporate culture.
Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University who helped to build the strategies used by Harbor Capital for its ETFs, argues that companies that "do the right thing" in creating a culture where employees feel genuinely valued and motivated enjoy an improvement in their financial performance and share price.
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Source: ft.com
ETFS Capital and Lion Point Announce Breakdown of Settlement Discussions With WisdomTree Investment, Inc. and Intention to File Preliminary Proxy Materials
May 4, 2023--Expresses Extreme Disappointment in Apparent Bad Faith Motives of the Board and Management in Seeking to Settle with ETFS and Lion Point
Sends Open Letter to the Board of Directors of WisdomTree
Highlights Urgent Need for Independent Directors with Relevant Industry Experience to Help Correct WisdomTree's Value Destruction and Hold Management Accountable
ETFS Capital Limited ("ETFS"), the largest combined owner of common stock, $0.01 par value (the "Common Stock") and Series A Non-Voting Convertible Preferred Stock (the "Series A Preferred Stock") of WisdomTree Investments, Inc. ("WisdomTree" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:WETF), with aggregate ownership of approximately 10.4% of the outstanding Common Stock, which together with its Series A Preferred Stock would represent approximately 18.6% of the Company's outstanding Common Stock on an as-converted basis, and Lion Point Capital, LP (together with certain of its affiliates, "Lion Point" and together with ETFS, the "Group"), which owns 3.1% of the outstanding Common Stock, announced today their intention to file preliminary proxy materials for election to the Board of Directors of WisdomTree (the "Board") at the Company’s 2022 annual meeting of stockholders and issued an open letter to the Board.
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Source: ETFS Capital Limited
World's First Oil Tanker Shipping ETF
May 3, 2023--BWET is the World's First ETF to Provide Exposure to Tanker Shipping Futures
Breakwave Advisors in partnership with ETF Managers Group LLC (ETFMG(R)), announced that the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (NYSE Arca: BWET) will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange.
BWET is the world's first ETF designed to provide long exposure to the crude oil tanker shipping market through a portfolio of near-dated futures contracts on indices that measure the cost of shipping crude oil.
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Source: ETFMG
Q1 US sustainable fund sector sales wounded by one ETF
May 2, 2023--Without the $6.5bn outflows from a single iShares ETF, the funds would have attracted net inflows
Investors pulled $5.2bn from US sustainable mutual funds and ETFs in the first quarter-but if it were not for one iShares ETF, they would have been in net inflows, according to a Morningstar report.
The $14.2bn iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) leaked $6.5bn during the quarter, Morningstar data shows. In March, investors withdrew more than $5.4bn - more than one-third of the fund's assets. Most of those net redemptions happened on March 20, when the fund recorded $3.9bn in redemptions, as reported. The redemptions spike could have been because BlackRock rebalanced its model portfolios, Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store, told Ignites at the time.
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Source: ft.com
Federal Reserve Board announces the results from the review of the supervision and regulation of Silicon Valley Bank, led by Vice Chair for Supervision Barr
April 28, 2023--The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced the results from the review of the supervision and regulation of Silicon Valley Bank, led by Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr. The review finds four key takeaways on the causes of the bank's failure:
Silicon Valley Bank's board of directors and management failed to manage their risks;
Federal Reserve supervisors did not fully appreciate the extent of the vulnerabilities as Silicon Valley Bank grew in size and complexity;
When supervisors did identify vulnerabilities, they did not take sufficient steps to ensure that Silicon Valley Bank fixed those problems quickly enough; and
The Board's tailoring approach in response to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act and a shift in the stance of supervisory policy impeded effective supervision by reducing standards, increasing complexity, and promoting a less assertive supervisory approach.
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Source: federalreserve.gov
Columbia Threadneedle Investments Launches Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (CRED)
April 26, 2023--Strategic beta real estate ETF designed for asset allocators, based on firm’s proprietary research
Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the expansion of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) suite with the launch of the Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (NYSE Arca: CRED).
Designed for investors seeking a thoughtfully constructed and accessible way to gain exposure to the real estate sector, the strategy incorporates the firm's research intensity and proprietary insights in real estate in a cost-effective vehicle.
"Real estate has long played an important role in portfolio diversification, and there are many ways to access the asset class across the liquidity spectrum," said Marc Zeitoun, Head of Strategic Beta. "With the launch of CRED, we are offering investors and allocators a differentiated, research-driven way to improve their benchmark exposures to real estate."
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Source: Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Regulators get tough on crypto funds after FTX collapse
April 24, 2023--In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected plans for a 'spot' ETF holding bitcoin directly
Providers of crypto exchange traded funds are struggling to establish their products as viable investments, according to regulatory experts, as a crackdown on digital assets continues.
Crypto markets endured a year of acute turbulence in 2022 when the price of popular digital assets, such as bitcoin and ethereum, plummeted from record highs. These sudden falls plunged several once-prominent firms-including lending platform Celsius Network and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital- into bankruptcy.
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Source: ft.com