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Maple offer for TMX on knife edge
April 27, 2012-Another potential big stock exchange deal could soon be history. A group of Canadian banks and pension funds have said they may not extend their C$3.8bn ($3.7bn) offer to buy TMX Group, the country's largest exchange operator, past a deadline on Monday, citing a continued stiff regulatory review.
That review may still be resolved favourably for the group, with antitrust authorities saying that some of the changes requested by securities regulators could ease their concerns.
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Source: FT.com
National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 1st quarter 2012
(advance estimate)
April 27, 2012--Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.
The Bureau emphasized that the first-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source
data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 3). The
"second" estimate for the first quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on May 31, 2012.
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction
The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment and a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in PCE and in exports.
view the GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: FIRST QUARTER 2012 (ADVANCE ESTIMATE)
Source: BEA
Vanguard Cuts Fees on Popular ETFs.
April 27, 2012--The ETF battles continue. Vanguard Group, the third-largest ETF provider, cut fees on 13 of its exchange-traded funds this week, bringing their costs to investors in line or ahead of those of some rival firms.
In a release, the company said that increasing assets under management at the funds made the cuts possible. Most of the changes went into effect on Thursday.
The affected ETFs – which include the Vanguard S&P 500 Index, Total Stock Market Index and Total Bond Market Index, among others – simply seek to track certain market indexes rather than to beat the market. Such ETFs have become increasingly commoditized as providers such as Charles Schwab, Blackrock’s iShares and State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR shares offer similar funds. That’s left the companies little choice but to compete on price.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
Canada promotional blitz urges free trade with EU
April 27, 2012--Government ministers on Friday set out across Canada to promote a free trade pact with the European Union described as the "most ambitious" deal in Canadian history.
However, key obstacles must still be overcome in the ongoing negotiations, such as Canada's clinging to its dairy supply management system and a few EU member states irked by visa restrictions.
"This is, by far, the most ambitious trade initiative in our nation's history, with the potential to be broader in scope and produce even more benefits to Canadians than the historic NAFTA," Trade Minister Ed Fast said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa.
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Source: EUbusiness
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
April 27, 2012--The current reports for the week of April 24, 2012 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Vanguard Cuts Fees on Popular ETFs
April 27, 2012--The ETF battles continue. Vanguard Group, the third-largest ETF provider, cut fees on 13 of its exchange-traded funds this week, bringing their costs to investors in line or ahead of those of some rival firms.
In a release, the company said that increasing assets under management at the funds made the cuts possible. Most of the changes went into effect on Thursday.
The affected ETFs – which include the Vanguard S&P 500 Index, Total Stock Market Index and Total Bond Market Index, among others – simply seek to track certain market indexes rather than to beat the market. Such ETFs have become increasingly commoditized as providers such as Charles Schwab, Blackrock’s iShares and State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR shares offer similar funds. That’s left the companies little choice but to compete on price.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
State Street Global Advisors Launches Actively Managed SPDR ETFs
Suite of Three Fund-of-Funds Designed to Take Advantage of Market Inefficiencies
April 26, 2012--State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)*, the asset management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT-News), today announced that the SPDR® SSgA Multi-Asset Real Return ETF (Symbol: RLY -News), the SPDR SSgA Income Allocation ETF (Symbol: INKM - News), and the SPDR SSgA Global Allocation ETF (Symbol: GAL-News) began trading on the NYSE Arca on April 26, 2012. The new funds, which are actively managed by SSgA's Investment Solutions Group (ISG), provide investors and advisors with access to the firm's institutional asset management expertise.
“The launch of these three new actively managed SPDR ETFs opens a new chapter in our longstanding commitment to democratizing access to institutional asset classes, strategies, and expertise,” said James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors. “In providing a convenient, cost effective vehicle for investors and financial advisors to benefit from SSgA’s experience in global tactical asset allocation, our actively managed ETFs are an innovative addition to the SPDR ETF family.”
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Source: State Street Corporation
UBS launches ETRACS exchange traded note providing exposure across commodities and across their respective futures maturities
ETRACS DJ-UBS Commodity Index 2-4-6 Blended Futures (Ticker: BLND) Is the first ETN linked to the second generation of the most widely followed commodities index
April 26, 2012--UBS Investment Bank today announced the launch of the ETRACS DJ-UBS Commodity Index 2-4-6 Blended Futures ETN (Ticker: BLND), the first exchange-traded note linked to the next generation of the DJ-UBS Commodity Index, one of the most widely followed, diversified indexes of commodities futures prices.
BLND is linked to the Dow-Jones-UBS Commodity Index 2-4-6 Forward Blend Total ReturnSM (Ticker: DJUF246T), an enhanced version of the Dow-Jones-UBS Commodity Index. The Index is constructed as an equally-weighted basket of the two-month, four-month and six-month forward versions of the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index, providing diversification across the commodity price curve of each of the 20 commodities that currently comprise the index.
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Source: UBS
State Street Begins Asset-Allocation ETFs in Active Push
April 26, 2012--State Street Corp. (STT), the second- largest manager of exchange-traded funds, opened three products that can spread money across a range of asset classes in a push into actively managed ETFs.
The funds will use tactical asset-allocation strategies and invest in ETFs including those run by State Street, James Ross, senior managing director of State Street Global Advisors, the Boston-based company’s money-management unit, said today at a conference in New York. The mix of underlying investments will include stocks, bonds, commodities and other asset classes.
“I can see active ETFs being a larger part of the ETF landscape,” Ross said. “We obviously plan to participate in that growing market.”
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Source: Bloomberg
iShares Creates the First Suite of Corporate Credit Quality Exchange Traded Funds
iShares Launches the First ETFs that Access Baa-Ba and B - Ca Rated Corporate Debt
April 26, 2012--BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced that its iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world's largest manager of ETFs, has launched the first suite of corporate credit quality ETFs.
The new iShares ETFs that began trading today are the iShares Baa – Ba Rated Corporate Bond Fund (BATS: QLTB) and the iShares B – Ca Rated Corporate Bond Fund (BATS: QLTC). The two new funds are the first ETFs designed to offer precise exposure to specific credit quality segments of the U.S. corporate debt market. Today’s launch follows the February debut of the iShares Aaa – A Rated Corporate Fund (NYSE Arca: QLTA), which offers exposure to the highest quality USD-denominated corporate bonds rated Aaa- A.
“The creation of the iShares suite of corporate credit quality ETFs is a significant milestone for investors and the industry,” said Matthew Tucker, Head of iShares Fixed Income Investment Strategy at BlackRock. “Investors have asked for more targeted iShares fixed income ETFs in order to create custom portfolios and adjust their portfolio exposures quickly as debt market conditions change. The new iShares suite transforms how investors can access specific slices of corporate bonds and brings transparent pricing to an otherwise opaque area of fixed income.”
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Source: BlackRock
