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Global Trade Watch 201: Trade Amid Tensions
May 29, 2019--Global trade growth showed signs of stabilizing in the first quarter of 2019, after slowing in 2018 amid weakening economic growth in China and the Euro area and rising trade protectionism. However, an escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions might change the outlook.
Tit-for-tat tariffs have diverted trade to many developing countries. They had major effects on imports of easily substitutable products as soybeans and hard-disk drives.
If trade tensions intensify and cause a slump in investor confidence, up to 30.7 million people could be pushed into poverty at levels below $5.50 a day under a worst-case scenario. In the longer term, trade tensions could also disrupt global value chains.
view the World Bank
Global Trade Watch 2018 : Trade Amid Tensions report
Investor Confidence Rose in May by 6.6 Points to 79.5
May 29, 2019-State Street Global Exchange today released the results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index(R)(ICI) for May 2019.
The Global Investor Confidence Index increased to 79.5, up 6.6 points from April's revised reading of 72.9
Confidence among North American and European investors improved, with the North American ICI rising from 71.3 to 76.7, and the European ICI rising from 86.6 to 92.5. By contrast, the Asia ICI dropped by 4.2 points to 88.4.
Stability in the Financial System (2019:1)
May 28, 2019--Both the global and the Swedish economies appear to be slowing down. Low interest rates-which have resulted in high risk-taking and rising asset prices-are expected to remain low for a prolonged period of time. Resilience in the Swedish financial system is satisfactory in general.
However, even if the banks' resilience is satisfactory overall, FI makes the assessment that they need more capital to cover the risks in their lending to commercial real estate firms.
The prolonged period of low interest rates has led to higher risk-taking among various market participants. This has contributed to the increase in lending among households and firms and the increase in the prices of houses, commercial real estate, shares and other assets. If the willingness to take on risk were to fall sharply, this could cause large price reductions on the markets. This could ultimately have a negative impact on financial stability in Sweden.
view the Finansinspektionen Stability in the Financial System report
Bitcoin climbs to highest in a year amid cryptocurrency comeback
May 27, 2019--Bitcoin has soared to the highest level in a year, extending a run that's seen prices more than double since March.
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Solactive makes strategic investment in European governance, sustainability, and proxy voting firm Minerva Analytics
May 27, 2019--Solactive announces the completion of a strategic investment in Minerva to accelerate the growth of the electronic voting, stewardship, and ESG research services firm.
Following the deal's completion, Minerva will build-out its research and client service capability through Solactive's offices in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and Toronto, while leveraging Solactive’s technological capabilities in the fields of natural language processing to broaden its product suite. Minerva will now be able to offer clients global coverage, 24 hours a day. Solactive will seek to leverage Minerva data in the continued development of its offerings.
Goldman Sachs to speed up push into US wealth management
May 26, 2019--Acquisition of United Capital part of effort to take on Schwab and Morgan Stanley in $28tn market.
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Hedge Funds Making Progress, but Slow to Adopt ESG
May 23, 2019--ESG may be the global rage among institutional investors, but hedge fund firms have been the slowest among alternative asset managers to integrate the principles into long/short investment strategies.
The dearth of ESG-compliant hedge funds is not the result of investor disinterest. Rather, investment consultants said asset owner demand for ESG integration across all strategies is at its highest level ever.
GDP Growth-First quarter of 2019, OECD-OECD GDP growth jumps to 0.6% in first quarter of 2019
May 22, 2019--Growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area picked up strongly to 0.6% in the first quarter of 2019, double the 0.3% rate of the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates.
Among the Major Seven economies, GDP growth accelerated markedly in Germany (to 0.4% after 0.0% in the previous quarter), Italy (0.2%, from minus 0.1%), the United Kingdom (0.5%, from 0.2%) and the United States (0.8%, from 0.5%).
It picked up marginally in Japan (0.5%, from 0.4%) and was stable in France (at 0.3%, for the third consecutive quarter).
GDP growth also picked up in the European Union and the euro area (to 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, compared with 0.3% and 0.2% in the previous quarter).
Year-on-year GDP growth for the OECD area increased marginally to 1.9% compared with 1.8% in the previous quarter. Among the Major Seven economies, the United States recorded the highest annual growth (3.2%), while Italy recorded the lowest annual growth (0.1%).
ETF Worldwide Snapshot-May 2019
May 22, 2019--In our latest monthly report:
On May 20, 2019 the US SEC formally approved the application from Precidian to launch non-transparent active ETFs in the US. The SEC had earlier issued a notice that it intended to approve it.
The Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) agreed to establish Japan-China ETF connectivity, with a goal of increasing cross-border investments.
Gasoline futures, solar equities and recent IPOs were among the best performing ETF categories this year to date through May 17, 2019.
Global ETF assets increased by 2.9% in April 2019 to $5.66T.
On May 20, 2019 the US SEC formally approved the application from Precidian to launch non-transparent active ETFs in the US. The SEC had earlier issued a notice on April 8, 2019 that it intended to approve the application.
On April 22, 2019, the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) agreed to establish Japan-China ETF connectivity, with a goal of increasing cross-border investments. The arrangement allows the listing of feeder ETF of ETFs investing in Japanese or Chinese assets.
There were 31 new listings in the US and 117 new ETF listings (including crosslistings) outside the US in April 2019.
Gasoline futures, solar equities and recent IPOs were among the best performing ETF categories this year to date through May 17, 2019. VIX, shipping and coffee futures were among the worst performing categories.
Shadow Banking Is a New Culprit in Systemic Risk: Fitch
May 21, 2019--Bank exposure channels, insurance companies and pension funds may be at risk, Fitch said.
Specifically, Fitch pointed to the continued rise of shadow banking as a potential culprit in new systemic risk.
Shadow banking is credit lending and the exchange of liquidity that occurs outside of mainstay financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies