Americas ETP News
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Junk-Debt ETFs Set Markets 'Abuzz' After Record Trades
MAy 17, 2012--The largest trades on record in shares of two exchange-traded funds that invest in junk debt are attracting attention to the four-year-old market that allows anyone from banks to retirees fast and discreet access to speculative-grade bonds and loans.
Shares of an Invesco Ltd. ETF that invests in leveraged loans had a record one-day inflow on May 10 that boosted its shares outstanding by 25 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The same day, an investor used State Street Corp. (STT)’s ETF of junk bonds to anonymously obtain as much as $780 million of the debt by swapping shares of the fund.
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Source: Bloomberg
U.S. Institutions Find New Strategic Uses for ETFs
May 17, 2012--Institutional investors that began using exchange-traded
funds (ETFs) for manager transitions, rebalancing, and other tactical applications are increasingly employing
ETFs for strategic purposes, such as gaining long-term exposures to desired asset classes.
The results of a recent study by Greenwich Associates show that 57% of institutional ETF users employ these
products to achieve strategic allocation ranges — a share
that includes 38% of asset managers and more than 60% of institutional funds using ETFs.
Those shares have both grown since last year, when, among ETF users, about 50% of institutional funds and a quarter of asset managers said they used the product to achieve strategic allocation ranges.
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Source: Greenwich Associates
Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
May 17, 2012--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
The Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (TSX:CP) announced changes to the Board of Directors today.
Among others, William Ackman who represents Pershing Square was elected to the board. Pershing Square owns about 14% of the outstanding shares of Canadian Pacific Railway. As a result of the director changes, the relative weight of Canadian Pacific Railway will decrease in the S&P/TSX Composite and Capped Composite, the S&P/TSX Equity and Capped Equity, the S&P/TSX Composite Dividend, the S&P/TSX 60 and 60 Capped, the S&P/TSX Equity 60 and the S&P/TSX Capped Industrials indices. There will be no weight change effective in the S&P/TSX Composite Equal Weight and Canadian Dividend Aristocrats, S&P/TSX 60 Equal Weight and 60 130/30 Strategy indices. These changes will be effective after close on Thursday, May 24, 2012.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poor's
BM&FBOVESPA and Santander announce partnership to develop the Brazilian carbon market
Agreement to study creation of financial carbon credits related products
May 17, 2012--BM&FBOVESPA and Santander Brasil have signed a partnership agreement to stimulate the carbon credit market in Brazil. This aims at studying the creation of products such as derivatives and actuals with carbon credits as underlying.
The agreement will lead the two institutions to assess jointly the development of products aimed at the Brazilian and international markets and to develop joint studies, assess economic viability and suggest the necessary regulatory measures for the launch of these products. The initiative also foresees the creation of a Market Maker Program for the products that result from the partnership.
This is an important phase in the development of the local carbon market, getting Brazil on track to what has been done internationally,” said Santander Treasury Officer Roberto Campos. “We’re taking another step towards creating an environment that, in the medium term, will promote standardization, transparency and liquidity for the market participants,” said BM&FBOVESPA Product and Customer Officer Marcelo Maziero.
Source: BM&FBOVESPA
Five Questions: John Hyland of the National ETF Association
May 16, 2012--On April 25, at the annual Capital Link Closed-End Funds and Global ETFs conference in New York City, John Hyland announced the birth of the National ETF Association (Netfa).
Hyland is the chief investment officer at United States Commodity Funds (USCF) of Alameda, California, the sponsor of 12 commodity ETFs — mostly in oil, natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil — and he will be the chairman.
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Source: Institutional Investor
Industry Pros Continue Migration to WallachBeth Capital; More New Hires for Go-To Execution Experts
May 16, 2012--WallachBeth Capital LLC ("WB"), the institutional brokerage/execution firm specializing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), equities and options, announced its further expansion with the recent hiring of Jennica Ross, who will oversee strategic client relationships, and options and merger arbitrage specialist Randy Sharringhausen.
Both Ms. Ross and Mr. Sharringhausen will report to WallachBeth’s senior principals, CEO Michael Wallach and President/COO David Beth.
Ms. Ross was most recently a Director for the Strategic Relations Group at Guggenheim Funds Distributors, Inc. and previously, Director, Equity Syndicates Sales/Marketing for UBS Financial Services. Ms. Ross came to the Industry in 2003, immediately upon graduating from Princeton University.
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Source: WallachBeth Capital
Minutes of TThe Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee Meeting held on April 24-25, 2012
May 16, 2012--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on April 24-25, 2012. A summary of economic projections made by Federal Reserve Board members and Reserve Bank presidents for the April 24-25, 2012 meeting is also included as an addendum to these minutes.
The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board's Annual Report. Summaries of economic projections are released on an approximately quarterly schedule. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in these minutes and in the Summary of Economic Projections are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meeting.
view the Minutes of Federal Open Market Committee
Source: FBR
ISE and AlphaClone Announce Partnership
May 15, 2012--The International Securities Exchange (ISE), a leading US options exchange, and AlphaClone LLC, the leader in hedge fund position replication, today announced their partnership to promote AlphaClone's innovative hedge fund position replication index, the AlphaClone Hedge Fund Long/Short Index.
Their partnership will serve as a platform to license and promote AlphaClone’s proprietary hedge fund position replication approach to third parties seeking to provide access to alternative investment products.
This agreement combines the global experience of ISE with AlphaClone's distinct disclosure-based hedge fund replication approach, called cloning. Third-party licensees will be able to leverage ISE’s business development and marketing support to effectively bring AlphaClone’s innovative research and products to market.
“Our partnership with AlphaClone represents a new direction for ISE,” said Gary Katz, President and CEO of ISE. “As we continue to expand our presence in indexes and exchange-traded products, we are looking for compelling opportunities to commit our resources to assist ETFs in coming to market. Our collaboration with AlphaClone is an excellent first initiative in this area.”
“Partnering with a company such as ISE is a game changer for us and solidifies our leadership in disclosure-based investment research,” said Maz Jadallah, CEO of AlphaClone. “Our ability to access ISE’s expertise and resources going forward means our partners will know that they are backed by world class marketing and support.”
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Source: International Securities Exchange (ISE)
New ETF starts trading on BM&FBOVESPA
May 15, 2012--A new exchange-traded fund (ETF) is available for trading on BM&FBOVESPA. UTIP11 is indexed to the Public Utilities Index (UTIL), which tracks the performance of the shares issued by leading electric, water and sewage, and gas utilities.
The ticker symbol of the new ETF called Ishares Public Utilities Index (Índice de Utilidade Pública) is: UTIP11.
Besides this new ETF, investors can also trade in 12 other ETFs on BM&FBOVESPA: four broad-based index funds — BOVA11, BRAX11, PIBB11 and DIVO11, indexed to the Ibovespa, IBrX-100, IBrX-50 and Dividend indexes respectively; six sector index funds — CSMO11, MOBI11, MATB11, FIND11, ISUS11 and GOVE11, indexed to the Consumer Goods, Real Estate, Basic Materials, Financials, Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Governance indexes respectively; and two market cap index funds — SMAL11, indexed to the small cap index, and MILA11, indexed to the large cap index.
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Source: BM&FBOVESPA
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
May 15, 2012--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
The shareholders of Flint Energy Services Ltd. (TSX: FES) have accepted the $CDN25.00 cash per share offer from URS Corporation (NYSE: URS).
Flint Energy Services will be removed from the S&P/TSX Composite and Capped Composite, the S&P/TSX Equity and Capped Equity, the S&P/TSX Completion and Equity Completion, the S&P/TSX SmallCap and Equity SmallCap, the S&P/TSX Capped Energy and the S&P/TSX Composite Equal Weight Indices effective after the close of Thursday, May 17, 2012.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poor's
