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March 2010-Euro area external trade surplus 4.5 bn euro-7.1 bn euro deficit for EU27
May 18, 2010--The first estimate for the euro area1 (EA16) trade balance with the rest of the world in March 2010 gave a 4.5 billion euro surplus, compared with +1.6 bn in March 2009. The February 20102 balance was +2.4 bn, compared with
-1.2 bn in February 2009. In March 2010 compared with February 2010, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 7.5% and imports by 10.3%.
The first estimate for the March 2010 extra-EU271 trade balance was a 7.1 bn euro deficit, compared with
-9.2 bn in March 2009. In February 20102 the balance was -6.5 bn, compared with -10.8 bn in February 2009. In March 2010 compared with February 2010, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 7.0% and imports by 10.4%.
These data3 are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
EU27 January-February 2010 detailed results
The EU27 deficit rose for energy (-43.1 bn euro in January-February 2010 compared with -38.9 bn in January-February 2009), while the surplus for manufactured goods has increased (+18.0 bn compared with +7.9 bn).
EU27 exports to its major partners grew in January-February 2010 compared with January-February 2009, except for the USA and Russia (both -1%). The most notable increases were recorded for exports to China (+47%), Turkey (+37%) and India (+36%). For imports, the largest increases were recorded with Russia (+30%), India (+14%) and Turkey (+12%), and the largest falls with the USA (-14%), Japan and Brazil (both -5%).
European Parliament - Hedge Funds: MEPs Call For Less Speculation And More Transparency
May 18, 2010--The EP Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Monday adopted its position on the draft EU law regulating managers of alternative investment funds, including hedge funds. MEPs voted for new ways to deal with managers and funds located outside the EU, a proportionality system to regulate less risky funds more lightly, and rules on remuneration policies and short selling. They also made improvements to the directive's transparency and risk reduction rules.
"This position will ensure better transparency and better investor protection while at the same time being on the side of the financial industry when it is working for the real economy", rapporteur Jean-Paul Gauzès (EPP, FR) said minutes after the vote.
Under the legislation as amended by the committee, alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) in third countries would have to comply with the directive in order to market funds around the EU. Funds such as private equity and investment trusts would be more lightly regulated than hedge funds and some other types of alternative investment funds (AIFs) would be completely exempted.
The main changes put forward by MEPs to the Commission's initial draft are intended to increase investor protection and transparency while at the same time reducing the potentially protectionist dimension of the rules on access to the EU market from the outside.
Negotiations are now expected to take place between MEPs and the Council of Ministers ahead of the first-reading vote by the full Parliament, scheduled for July.
Council to negotiate with Parliament on draft EU rules for hedge fund managers
May 18, 2010--The Council today1 agreed a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on a
draft directive aimed at introducing harmonised EU rules for entities engaged in the
management of alternative investment funds, such as hedge funds and private equity (doc.
7377/10).
The negotiations with the Parliament will aim to enable the directive to be adopted in first
reading. The presidency will negotiate on the basis of a Council general approach agreed
today; it took note of remaining concerns expressed by delegations, for instance with
respect to third country rules.
The draft directive is aimed at:
– establishing a harmonised framework for monitoring and supervising the risks that alternative investment funds pose to their investors, counterparties, other market participants and to financial stability;
allowing alternative investment fund managers (AIFM) to provide services and market EU funds throughout the EU single market, subject to compliance with strict requirements.
It is aimed at fulfilling commitments made within the G-20, in the wake of the global financial crisis, as well as the European Council's pledge to regulate all players in the market that might pose a risk to financial stability.
The impact of AIFM on the markets in which they operate is largely beneficial, though the difficulties on financial markets have underscored how their activities may also serve to spread or amplify risks though the financial system.
The activities of AIFM are currently regulated by a combination of national regulations and general provisions of EU law, supplemented in some areas by industry standards. The global financial crisis showed that uncoordinated national responses to the risks to which the funds were exposed made the efficient management of these risks difficult.
Besides hedge funds and private equity, the draft directive also covers real estate funds, commodity funds and all other funds that are not covered by the directive on collective investment funds1.
The main features of the Council's general approach are as follows:
Authorisations. To operate in the EU, fund managers would be required under the
directive to obtain authorisation from the competent authority of their home
member state. Once authorised, an AIFM would be entitled to market funds
established in the EU to professional investors in any member state.
Risk management and prudential oversight. AIFM would be required to satisfy the
competent authority of the robustness of their internal arrangements with respect
to risk management, including liquidity risks. To support macro-prudential
oversight, they would be required to disclose on a regular basis the principal
markets and instruments in which they trade, their principal exposures and
concentrations of risk.
Emissions trading: EU ETS emissions fall more than 11% in 2009
Emissions of greenhouse gases from EU businesses participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) fell 11.6 % in 2009 compared with a 2008, according to the information provided by Member State registries.
May 18, 2010--Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said: "Due to the crisis the significant drop in emissions does not come as a surprise. The EU has a functioning trading system driving emission reductions even during a recession. We should not hide that the recession has significantly weakened the price signal. The carbon market can and should be a stronger driver for low-carbon investments. And we must also realise that because of the crisis it suddenly became easier to reduce emissions and that is good. Unfortunately that also means that European business did not invest nearly as much as planned in innovation, which could harm our future ability to compete on promising markets."
2009 emissions data
Verified emissions of greenhouse gases from all installations in the EU ETS in 2009 totalled 1.873 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent. 2009 were about 11.6 % lower than the 2008 level.
The drop in emissions is in line with widely held expectations and analyst forecasts provided months ahead of the data release. It is attributed to several factors. Firstly, the reduced economic activity as a result of the recession and secondly, the low level of gas prices throughout 2009 which has made it much more attractive to produce power from gas rather than more emitting coal. Furthermore, the carbon price in phase 2 (2008-2012) of the EU ETS has surely also resulted in companies changing behaviour and reducing emissions.
Chancellor announces policies to enhance fiscal credibility
Independent Office for Budget Responsibility created
Chief Secretary sets out £6 billion reduction in 2010-11 spending
May 10, 2010--Sir Alan Budd will chair a new Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), established on an interim basis today, to assess the state of the public finances, the Chancellor has announced.
The Chief Secretary will meet Cabinet colleagues this week to agree £6 billion of cuts in this year’s spending. This is to make an immediate start on tackling the UK’s unprecedented £163 billion deficit, boosting credibility and helping keep interest rates lower for longer.
This decision follows advice from the Treasury and the Bank of England on the feasibility and advisability of acting quickly.
The Government is also today announcing that it will re-examine all spending approvals made since 1 January, to ensure that they are consistent with the Government’s priorities and good value for money.
The fiscal framework since 1997 and its consequences From 1997, the key decisions on tax and spending were determined by a fiscal framework based on meeting a set of fiscal rules. Whether those decisions were consistent with meeting the rules in the future was measured using forecasts for borrowing made by the Chancellor. While the Treasury produced economic and fiscal analysis and used its macroeconomic and other models to forecast the economy and the public finances, the key judgments used to produce the forecasts under successive governments were the Chancellor’s.
The potential incentive to optimistically forecast lower borrowing and higher growth, and so delay necessary measures to strengthen the public finances, led to scepticism over the credibility of the Government’s forecasts. Budget forecasts over the last decade consistently underestimated borrowing, compared to both outturn and independent forecasts made at the time.
HSBC launches S&P 500 Exchange Traded Fund
May 17, 2010--HSBC has launched the HSBC S&P 500 ETF, a new exchange traded fund with a total expense ratio of 0.15%.
The HSBC S&P 500 ETF will be listed initially on the London Stock Exchange. Further registrations and cross-listings in Europe are planned over the coming months
According to HSBC, this fund offers investors exposure to the total return performance of the S&P 500 Index, which is widely used to track the stockmarket performance of US companies. The index represents some 75% of the value of the US equities market and comprises 500 of the largest companies in the major industries of the US economy.
The HSBC S&P 500 ETF will aim to invest in the underlying shares of the index in the same proportions in which they are included in the index in order to replicate the total return performance of the index closely. This investment approach is referred to as physical replication and is used by HSBC for all the ETFs, said HSBC.
Farley Thomas, head of ETFs at HSBC, said: "Until now, investors have been limited to just one ETF provider for access to the performance of the S&P 500 Index. The launch of the HSBC S&P 500 ETF brings choice for investors with a highly competitive Total Expense Ratio of just 0.15%. As with our other ETFs, our latest offering can be included in an ISA and can be traded like any other stock on the UK stockmarket but without having to pay stamp duty."
Standard & Poor’s has licensed seven major European exchange-traded fund sponsors
S&P 500 ETFs Expected to Simultaneously List on Several European Exchanges in May
May 17, 2010--Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, today announced that it has licensed 7 major European ETF sponsors, and is in discussion with others, to create and list Exchange Traded Funds based on the S&P 500, the premier gauge for U.S. stock market performance and the leading barometer of health for the financial markets.
The seven new S&P 500 ETFs are expected to list on exchanges in major European cities beginning today and throughout the month of May, and marks a significant milestone for Standard & Poor's and the European ETF industry as more investors in more markets will be able to trade the S&P 500 in real-time on their local exchanges.
Widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equity market since it was first introduced in 1957, the S&P 500 Index has over US$3.5 trillion benchmarked to it globally, with index assets comprising approximately US$1 trillion of this total. The Index includes 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy.
"There is strong, pent-up demand across all of Europe for access to U.S. market returns, as measured by the S&P 500," says Alex Matturri, Executive Managing Director at S&P Indices. "By licensing major ETF sponsors in strategic markets across Europe, Standard & Poor's is ensuring that investors of all types – from institutional to active traders to self-directed retail investors - will have direct access to the S&P 500 through as many distribution channels as possible via leading product sponsors."
"Demand has also been very strong across Europe for our other core indices, as this year alone, 15 ETFs throughout Europe have been launched based upon Standard & Poor's family of global indices," adds Matturri. "Our strategy is clear: provide greater access to more markets for more investors throughout the world."
The S&P 500 licensing agreements are part of Standard & Poor's aggressive push to provide expanded access to the U.S. equity markets for global investors, and comes on the heels of Standard & Poor's licensing of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to create and list Indian Rupee-denominated futures contracts on the S&P 500. That groundbreaking licensing agreement, jointly from S&P and S&P-licensee Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to NSE, is part of a landmark cross-listing arrangement announced by CME and NSE on March 10, 2010 that provides for CME and NSE to create and list new derivatives products based upon Indian and U.S. equity benchmark indices.
For more information on the S&P 500, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.
CESR Invites Comments On Its Draft Guidelines For The Registration Of Credit Rating Agencies
May 17, 2010--CESR publishes today two sets of guidance in the field of Credit Rating Agencies, and invites comments by 18th June.
View-Guidance on Common Standards for Assessment of Compliance of Credit Rating Methodologies with the Requirements set out in Article 8(3)
Six New db x-trackers ETFs Launched on Xetra
May 17, 2010--Six more db x-trackers equity index funds from Deutsche Bank’s ETF offering have been tradable on Xetra since Monday.
ETF name: db x-trackers FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Real Estate ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0489337690
Management fee: 0.20 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Net TR Index
ETF name: db x-trackers FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Eurozone Real Estate ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0489336965
Management fee: 0.15 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Eurozone Net TR Index
Two of the new db x-trackers ETFs enable investors to track the performance of listed equity REITs and real estate companies from industrialized European countries or the euro zone.
ETF name: db x-trackers MSCI Canada TRN Index ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0476289540
Management fee: 0.15 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: MSCI Canada TRN Index
ETF name: db x-trackers MSCI Europe Value TRN Index ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0486851024
Management fee: 0.20 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: MSCI Europe Value TRN Index
ETF name: db x-trackers MSCI Mexico TRN Index ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0476289466
Management fee: 0.45 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: MSCI Mexico TRN Index
The three other new db x-trackers ETFs are based on total return net benchmarks from the MSCI index family. The MSCI index methodology focuses on free float market capitalization and aims for 85-percent market coverage within each sector group. The db x-trackers MSCI Canada TRN Index ETF allows investors to participate in the performance of Canadian mid and large caps, and the db x-trackers MSCI Europe Value TRN Index ETF in the performance of European mid and large caps ranked as value stocks. A value stock is the share of a company that is undervalued in terms of price compared with the value of the company and earnings growth in the market, on the basis of the three key indicators below: Price/book value ratio, the ratio of 12-month earnings forecast to price and price/dividend ratio. The db x-trackers MSCI Mexico TRN Index ETF allows investors in Europe to participate in the performance of Mexican mid and large caps for the first time.
ETF name: db x-trackers S&P 500 ETF
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0490618542
Management fee: 0.05 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: S&P 500 TR Index
The db x-trackers S&P 500 ETF tracks the S&P 500 Total Return Net Index, for the calculation of which, all dividends and distributions after any tax deductions are taken into account. The index is weighted according to free float market capitalization and in turn tracks the performance of the 500 largest US stock corporations.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment currently contains a total of 666 exchange-listed index funds, making it the largest offering of all European stock exchanges. This selection, together with an average monthly trading volume of around €13 billion, makes Xetra Europe’s leading trading venue for ETFs.
Five New ComStage Equity Index ETFs Launched on Xetra
May 17, 2010--Five new listed bond index funds issued by ComStage have been tradable in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment since Monday.
ETF name: ComStage ETF CAC 40
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0419740799
Total expense ratio: 0.20 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: CAC 40 Total Return Index
ETF name: ComStage ETF CAC 40 Short TR
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0419740955
Total expense ratio: 0.35 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: CAC 40 Short Total Return Index
ETF name: ComStage ETF CAC 40 Leverage
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0419741094
Total expense ratio: 0.30 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: CAC 40 Leverage Total Return Index
Three of the five new ComStage ETFs on Xetra track the CAC 40 Index, CAC 40 Short Index and CAC 40 Leverage Index. Investors can thus participate in the performance of the 40 leading French companies with single or double leverage. They can also participate in inverse performance with the ComStage ETF CAC 40 Short.
ETF name: ComStage ETF S&P 500
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0488316133
Total expense ratio: 0.18 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: S&P 500 Total Return Index
The ComStage ETF S&P 500 ETF tracks the S&P 500 Index, which is weighted according to free float market capitalization and in turn tracks the performance of the 500 largest US stock corporations in terms of market capitalization. The S&P 500 is a total return net index, i.e. all dividends and distributions after any tax deductions are taken into account in the calculation of the index.
ETF name: ComStage ETF NYSE Arca Gold Bugs
Asset class: equity index ETF
ISIN: LU0488317701
Total expense ratio: 0.65 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index
The ComStage ETF NYSE Arca Gold BUGS allows investors to participate in the performance of companies from the gold mining sector. The index tracks short-term movements in the price of gold by accepting companies into the index which hedge their gold production for no longer than 18 months.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment currently contains a total of 666 exchange-listed index funds, making it the largest offering of all European stock exchanges. This selection, together with an average monthly trading volume of around €13 billion, makes Xetra Europe’s leading trading venue for ETFs.
