Global ETF News Older than One Year
'Flash Boys' Trading Bots Are Running Wild on Crypto Exchanges
April 15, 2019--Cornell Tech detects front running at decentralized exchanges
Researchers suggest impact could be in billions of dollars
'Flash Boy'-like trading manipulation is rampant on certain cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a paper from researchers at Cornell Tech and several other universities.
Special arbitrage bots are anticipating and profiting from ordinary users' trades on decentralized exchanges, which let them trade more directly, the authors said in a report released last week.
Source: Bloomberg
60 Investors Commit to Manage over $350 Billion in Assets in Line with New Impact Principles
April 12, 2019--IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced today that 60 investors are adopting the Operating Principles for Impact Management-a market standard for impact investing in which investors seek to generate positive impact for society alongside financial returns in a disciplined and transparent way.
The Principles bring greater transparency, credibility, and discipline to the impact investing market. The organizations adopting the Principles collectively hold over $350 billion in assets invested for impact, which they commit to manage in accordance with the Principles. Future investments for impact will also adhere to the Principles. The Principles provide a clear common market standard for what constitutes an impact investment, addressing concerns about "impact-washing." IFC led the development of the Principles, in collaboration with leading asset managers, asset owners, asset allocators, development banks, and financial institutions, including a three-month public stakeholder consultation.
view the Investing For Impact: Operating Principles for Impact Management
Source: IFC
FTSE Russell introduces Multi-Asset Composite Index Series
April 11, 2019--− Designed to provide broad measures of cross-asset market performance across a diverse selection of regions and risk exposures
A wide range of indexes across major asset classes covering global, regional and Emerging markets, including US, Europe and China
Draws on FTSE Russell's family of industry leading equity and fixed income global benchmarks
Designed for use by multi-asset investors, fully customizable and overseen by FTSE Russell's transparent index governance framework.
FTSE Russell, a leading global multi-asset index, data and analytics provider, today launched the FTSE Multi-Asset Composite Index Series. The new series is designed to provide broad measures of cross-asset market performance across a diverse selection of global regions and risk exposures.
Source: FTSE Russell
TRADEWEB MARKETS Monthly Activity Report-March 2019 A New Record For Total ADV in March
April 11, 2019--Average daily volume (ADV) across rates, credit, equities and money markets for Tradeweb Markets set a new monthly record in March, exceeding $700 billion (bn) for the first time ever. ADV for March 2019 of $709.1 bn rose 35.3 percent (%) year over year (YoY) while average daily trades totaled 51,412.
Activity on Tradeweb trading platforms in March was driven by new records for ADV in U.S. government bonds, European government bonds, mortgages, interest rate swaps and swaptions, and credit default swaps (CDS). The total for mortgages included forward trading in the new uniform mortgage-backed securities (UMBS) for the first time. ADV in CDS of $19.0 bn in March exceeded the record set a year prior by 16.6% due to a rise in trading activity driven by rolling activity across all products including single-name CDS. Growth in interest rate swaps and swaptions of 69.9% YoY was fueled in part by the continued surge in European swaps. ADV in repurchase agreements of $177.7 bn in March set another post-crisis record on further growth in bilateral electronic trading on the platform.Overall market volumes generally exhibit seasonal strength in March due to rolling activity as well as futures and options expirations across products.
Source: TradeWeb
Precious Metals Outlook: April 2019-Gold's Allure Remains Despite a Tepid First Quarter
April 11, 2019--The macroeconomic environment remains conducive for gold keeping the probability of a bullish scenario outcome for gold elevated.
Global growth forecasts continued to be cut for 2019 among major economic organizations, as weakness in both Europe and China weigh on outlooks.
The impact of geopolitics and trade may add a further drag to the global growth picture and provide further catalysts for gold this year.
Overlooked Silver May Still Surprise
Silver remains cheap relative to gold with an improved speculative sentiment among futures positioning in 2019.
Source: Aberdeen Standard Investments
The Global Economy: A Delicate Moment
April 10, 2019--A year ago, economic activity was accelerating in almost all regions of the world.
One year later, much has changed. The escalation of US-China trade tensions, needed credit tightening in China, macroeconomic stress in Argentina and Turkey, disruptions to the auto sector in Germany, and financial tightening alongside the normalization of monetary policy in the larger advanced economies have all contributed to a significantly weakened global expansion, especially in the second half of 2018.
With this weakness expected to persist into the first half of 2019, our new World Economic Outlook (WEO) projects a slowdown in growth in 2019 for 70 percent of the world economy. Global growth softened to 3.6 percent in 2018 and is projected to decline further to 3.3 percent in 2019. The downward revision in growth of 0.2 percentage points for 2019 from the January projection is also broad based. It reflects negative revisions for several major economies including the euro area, Latin America, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
view moreThe Global Economy: A Delicate Moment April 10, 2019--A year ago, economic activity was accelerating in almost all regions of the world. One year later, much has changed. The escalation of US-China trade tensions, needed credit tightening in China, macroeconomic stress in Argentina and Turkey, disruptions to the auto sector in Germany, and financial tightening alongside the normalization of monetary policy in the larger advanced economies have all contributed to a significantly weakened global expansion, especially in the second half of 2018.
With this weakness expected to persist into the first half of 2019, our new World Economic Outlook (WEO) projects a slowdown in growth in 2019 for 70 percent of the world economy. Global growth softened to 3.6 percent in 2018 and is projected to decline further to 3.3 percent in 2019. The downward revision in growth of 0.2 percentage points for 2019 from the January projection is also broad based. It reflects negative revisions for several major economies including the euro area, Latin America, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Source: IMF
High Debt Hampers Countries' Response to a Fast-Changing Global Economy
April 10, 2019--Economic growth is slowing and public debt remains high across the world. Meanwhile, demographic changes and technological advances are reshaping the global economy.
Everyone's opportunities for a good education, along with their job prospects, healthcare, and retirement income depend on the tax and spending choices governments make as they respond to these challenges.
What should policymakers do?
view the IMF-Fiscal Monitor: Curbing Corruption
Source: IMF
IMF-Global Financial Stability Reports-Vulnerabilities in a Maturing Credit Cycle
April 10, 2019-- Description: The April 2019 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) finds that despite significant variability over the past two quarters, financial conditions remain accommodative. As a result, financial vulnerabilities have continued to build in the sovereign, corporate, and nonbank financial sectors in several systemically important countries, leading to elevated medium-term risks.
The report attempts to provide a comprehensive assessment of these vulnerabilities while focusing specifically on corporate sector debt in advanced economies, the sovereign-financial sector nexus in the euro area, China's financial imbalances, volatile portfolio flows to emerging markets, and downside risks to the housing market. These vulnerabilities require action by policymakers, including through the clear communication of any changes in their monetary policy outlook, the deployment and expansion of macroprudential tools, the stepping up of measures to repair public and private sector balance sheets, and the strengthening of emerging market resilience to foreign portfolio outflows.
Source: IMF
IMF-World Economic Outlook, April 2019
Growth Slowdown, Precarious Recovery
April 10, 2019--After strong growth in 2017 and early 2018, global economic activity slowed notably in the second half of last year, reflecting a confluence of factors affecting major economies.
China's growth declined following a combination of needed regulatory tightening to rein in shadow banking and an increase in trade tensions with the United States. The euro area economy lost more momentum than expected as consumer and business confidence weakened and car production in Germany was disrupted by the introduction of new emission standards; investment dropped in Italy as sovereign spreads widened; and external demand, especially from emerging Asia, softened. Elsewhere, natural disasters hurt activity in Japan. Trade tensions increasingly took a toll on business confidence and, so, financial market sentiment worsened, with financial conditions tightening for vulnerable emerging markets in the spring of 2018 and then in advanced economies later in the year, weighing on global demand. Conditions have eased in 2019 as the US Federal Reserve signaled a more accommodative monetary policy stance and markets became more optimistic about a US-China trade deal, but they remain slightly more restrictive than in the fall.
view the IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2019 Growth Slowdown, Precarious Recovery
Source: IMF
Weak Spots in Global Financial System Could Amplify Shocks
April 10, 2019--In the United States, the ratio of corporate debt to GDP is at record-high levels. In several European countries, banks are overloaded with government bonds. In China, bank profitability is declining, and capital levels remain low at small and medium-size lenders.
Vulnerabilities like these are on the rise across advanced and emerging market economies, according to the IMF's latest Global Financial Stability Report. They aren't all setting off alarm bells just yet. But if they continue to build, especially with still-easy financial conditions, they could amplify shocks to the global economy, raising the odds of a severe economic downturn a few years down the road.
Source: IMF