Europe ETF News for the Past Year
ECB-Households and non-financial corporations in the euro area: first quarter of 2024
July 4, 2024--Households' financial investment increased at unchanged annual rate of 2.0% in first quarter of 2024
Non-financial corporations' financing grew at broadly unchanged annual rate of 0.7%
Non-financial corporations' gross operating surplus decreased at annual rate of -3.0%, after increasing (2.4%) in previous quarter
Households
Household gross disposable income increased in the first quarter of 2024 at an annual rate of 5.8%, after 5.6% in the previous quarter. The compensation of employees grew at a broadly unchanged rate of 5.9%, and gross operating surplus and mixed income of the self-employed increased at a lower rate of 5.0% (after 5.3%). Household consumption expenditure grew at a lower rate of 3.5% (after 4.1%).
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Source: ECB
ECB-Meeting of 5-6 June 2024-Account of the monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank
July 4, 2024--Held in Frankfurt am Main on Wednesday and Thursday, 5-6 June 2024
1. Review of financial, economic and monetary developments and policy options-Financial market developments
Ms Schnabel noted that since the Governing Council's previous monetary policy meeting on 10-11 April 2024, the narrative in financial markets had converged across major advanced economies.
It had moved towards a more gradual easing cycle and high-for-longer interest rates, owing to a more protracted "last mile" of disinflation.
The key drivers of financial market developments had been a stronger euro area economy, signs of a cooling US economy and strong investor risk appetite.
Euro area macroeconomic data had continued to turn out better than expected over the past four months, strengthening investors' view that the economic recovery was on track. By contrast, macroeconomic data surprises in the United States had become less favourable. Tentative signs of the US labour market cooling and inflation in line with expectations had eased investors' concerns that the Federal Reserve System might have to hike interest rates again.
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Source: ECB
Deutsche Boerse welcomes ETF Willow as a new ETF issuer on Xetra
June 27, 2024--Actively managed ETF with AI-based model and focus on Eurozone companies
ETF Willow's first Active Exchange Traded Fund has been tradable on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt since Thursday.
The investment objective of the AI-Enhanced Eurozone Equities UCITS ETF is to outperform the MSCI EMU Index through stock selection.
This involves identifying companies with upside potential that are not closely correlated to systematic risk factors. These include risks related to individual countries' fiscal policies, regulatory changes within sectors or sensitivity to global market movements.
The upside potential of the companies is determined using the expected returns based on a holistic AI-based model. Risk factors are derived from a global fundamental risk model.
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Source: Xetra
ECB-Monetary developments in the euro area: May 2024
June 27, 2024--Annual growth rate of broad monetary aggregate M3 increased to 1.6% in May 2024 from 1.3% in April
Annual growth rate of narrower monetary aggregate M1, comprising currency in circulation and overnight deposits, was -4.9% in May, compared with -5.9% in April
Annual growth rate of adjusted loans to households stood at 0.3% in May, compared with 0.2% in April
Annual growth rate of adjusted loans to non-financial corporations stood at 0.3% in May, compared with 0.2% in April
Components of the broad monetary aggregate M3
The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 increased to 1.6% in May 2024 from 1.3% in April, averaging 1.3% in the three months up to May. The components of M3 showed the following developments. The annual growth rate of the narrower aggregate M1, which comprises currency in circulation and overnight deposits, was -4.9% in May, compared with -5.9% in April. The annual growth rate of short-term deposits other than overnight deposits (M2-M1) decreased to 14.7% in May from 15.6% in April. The annual growth rate of marketable instruments (M3-M2) decreased to 17.5% in May from 22.6% in April.
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Source: ECB
BlackRock launches five climate transition ETFs in Europe
June 25, 2024--Each of the Irish-domiciled Ucits funds will have a different geographic focus
BlackRock has rolled out a five-strong range of climate transition exchange traded funds aiming to provide investors with access to "companies leading in the transition to a low-carbon economy".
The Ireland-domiciled iShares MSCI Climate Transition Aware Ucits ETFs are classified under Article 8 of the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
Each of the five ETFs has a different geographic focus: global, Europe, US, Japan, and the European economic and monetary union.
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Source: ft.com
The implications of the European Union's new fiscal rules
June 20, 2024--Executive summary
European Union countries are required by the EU Treaty to keep their budget deficits within 3 percent of GDP, and their public debt within 60 percent of GDP. A new framework to enforce these rules is based on country-specific debt sustainability analyses (DSA) and uses a single indicator, a measure of public expenditure, as the annual fiscal policy target. These changes are welcome.
To assess the sustainability of public finances, it is much better to focus on the likely evolution of the debt path than to rely on simple numerical rules. Public expenditures net of changes to tax policy are a far better target for fiscal policy than the deficit, since they are under the control of the government and cannot give rise to pro-cyclical fiscal policy (excess spending in good times, fiscal cuts in bad times). These features could increase the framework’s efficiency and improve compliance.
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Source: bruegel.org
Europe's New ESG Rules Spark Questions About What Sustainable Investing Looks Like
June 20, 2024--To comply with the EU's new rules, investment firms would have to change the name of thousands of funds or sell off $40 billion in assets.
The European Union's move to tighten rules for sustainable investing will put two-thirds of Europe's so-called ESG funds on notice, forcing thousands of them to either sell off $40 billion in assets or change their names in a way that more accurately and transparently reflects their holdings.
Last month, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) initiated a long-awaited process to tackle contradictions and confusion in the world of sustainable investing. This move highlights the long-standing debate over whether stocks such as fossil fuel companies should be included in ESG-environmental, social and governance-funds.
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Source: insideclimatenews.org
Europe's mutual funds continue to bleed heavily
June 17, 2024--Investors have pulled €258bn from actively managed equity funds since the start of 2022
Europe's active asset managers face an unprecedented challenge in dealing with continued mutual fund outflows.
Investors have pulled €258bn from actively managed equity funds since the start of 2022, with a further €140bn withdrawn from multi-asset and alternative funds, Morningstar data shows.
However, passive product providers have prospered from investor demand, with inflows to index and exchange traded equity funds totalling €256bn.
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Source: ft.com
Forecasts for the UK economy: July 2024
July 17, 2024--A comparison of independent forecasts for the UK economy in July 2024.
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Source: gov.uk
ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter
June 12, 2024--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its latest edition of the Spotlight on Markets Newsletter.
Your one-stop-shop in the world of EU financial markets focuses in May on the Position Paper with recommendations for more effective and attractive capital markets in the EU and includes a factsheet with the main highlights.
ESMA also issued a Statement with initial guidance to firms using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies when they provide investment services to retail clients. Following its public statement of 14 December 2023, guidelines establishing harmonised criteria for the use of ESG and sustainability terms in fund names were shared.
The financial markets regulator also published the Final Report on the rules on conflicts of interests of crypto-asset service providers (CASP) under the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA).
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Source: ESMA