Global ETF News Older than One Year
March 2018 BIS Quarterly Review: Volatility returns to centre stage after stock market wobble
March 11, 2018--Volatility returned to markets in February, puncturing a long period of unusual calm and highlighting the tricky task central banks face in normalising accommodative monetary policies.
The sharp correction in stock markets was sparked by anxiety about the US inflation outlook and its likely impact on interest rates, and shows how much risk market participants have taken on during the recent period of extraordinarily low volatility.
"No doubt, the wobble has shaken off some positions-the equivalent of pressing a 'reset' button. But the overall picture has not fundamentally changed," said Claudio Borio, Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the BIS.
"Policymakers need not fear volatility as such. Along the normalisation path, some volatility can be their friend."
The March 2018 issue of the Quarterly Review also:
Examines the 5 February turbulence and the role played by exchange-traded products that bet on volatility. It highlights that complex and leveraged products can create and amplify market jumps, even if the core players themselves are relatively small.
view the BIS Quarterly Review, March 2018
Source: BIS
Watchdogs tighten their grip on cryptocurrency exchanges
March 10, 2018--Japan and US regulators send tougher message to the industry
Financial watchdogs tightened their hold on the nascent cryptocurrency industry this week, in the latest sign that regulators are moving to restrain a freewheeling market that has drawn in retail investors.
Japan ordered two cryptocurrency exchanges -Bitstation and FSHO-to stop doing business for a month and ordered five others to improve their internal controls.
Source: FT.com
ETF Securities Investment Insights Platinum Outlook-Shining Through Diesel Drama
March 9, 2018--Summary
Leadership change sparked positive shift in economic outlook
for South Africa, the largest platinum producer, and the Rand.
Millennials may remain key for platinum jewelry growth.
Platinum prices may average $1040/ounce (oz) this year.
Platinum's narrative seems inextricably linked to negative diesel sentiment in Europe, where the share of diesel vehicles fell from 50% to 44% in 2017. European auto demand, however, accounts for only 27% of annual platinum demand, and markets may be overlooking the impact that retrofitting vehicles in Europe along with higher diesel emissions standards enacted in China may have on platinum demand. While the shift away from diesel does perpetuate strategic headwinds for platinum, the slowdown in this segment is not the only driver for platinum prices in 2018.
Source: etfsecurities.com
DECPG Global Weekly
March 9, 2018--Taking Stock
U.S. nonfarm payrolls surged in February, trade deficit rose to a near-decade high in January. Monthly nonfarm payrolls gains accelerated to 313,000 in February from an upwardly revised 239,000 in January.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in February (Figure 1), while the participation rate rose to 63 percent from 62.7 percent. Average hourly earnings growth slowed to 2.6 percent (y/y) in February from a downwardly revised 2.8 percent in January. The trade deficit increased from US$53.9bn in December to US$56.6bn in January, its highest level since October 2008, as exports fell 1.3 percent (m/m), while the level of imports was flat. The administration announced new import tariffs on steel and aluminum, with temporary exemptions for Canada and Mexico.
ETFGI reports ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$12.38 billion in February 2018, the lowest amount since May 2016
March 9, 2018--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered US$12.38 Bn in net inflows, the lowest monthly amount since May 2016 when net inflows were US$10.53 Bn. YTD 2018 net inflows are at US$118.13 Bn. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Net new assets gathered by ETFs/ETPs listed globally were $12.38 Bn, the lowest monthly net inflows since May 2016 which had $10.53 Bn
Due to market moves the assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed globally decreased by 3.50%, or $180.10 Bn, during February, to $4.968 Tn
February 2018 marked the 49th consecutive month of net inflows into ETFs/ETPs listed globally
Source: ETFGI
Bitcoin sinks down below $9,000 in cryptocurrency swoon
March 9, 2018--It has not been a very good few days for 'HODL'ers'-the bitcoin lovers who buy and keep the digital forex through market ructions.
Bitcoin has tumbled by a fifth over the past 7 days amid a wide rout in the cryptocurrencies market pushed by a fresh new regulatory clampdown and revelations that the trustee unwinding the defunct Mt Gox trade has sold thousands and thousands of dollars in bitcoin.
This week's sell-off has despatched bitcoin swooning from $eleven,100 to $8,741, in accordance to Reuters information monitoring the bitstamp investing location. Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin, 3 other broadly tracked cryptocurrencies, also seasoned large losses this 7 days, coinmarketcap.com information present.
Source: bitcoinexchangeuk.com
Is There a Phillips Curve? A Full Information Partial Equilibrium Approach
March 9, 2018--Summary:
Empirical tests of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve have provided results often inconsistent with microeconomic evidence. To overcome the pitfalls of standard estimations on aggregate data, a Full Information Partial Equilibrium approach is developed to exploit sectoral level data.
A model featuring sectoral NKPCs subject to a rich set of shocks is constructed. Necessary and sufficient conditions on the structural parameters are provided to allow sectoral idiosyncratic components to be linearly extracted. Estimation biases are corrected using the model's restrictions on the partial equilibrium propagation of idiosyncratic shocks. An application to the US, Japan and the UK rejects the purely forward looking, labor cost-based NKPC.
IMF Working Papers-Is There a Phillips Curve? A Full Information Partial Equilibriun
Source: IMF
US and China seen as leaders in AI innovation, but emerging players gaining ground according to EY poll
March 8, 2018--Corporate board diversity will be key for companies' long-term success
EY announces global innovation garage to meet demand for disruptive technologies
Despite its strong history of innovation, the US is facing competition from emerging players across the globe. According to a poll of 126 senior artificial intelligence (AI) professionals released today by EY, 40% of respondents believe the US is leading the race in AI adoption, followed by China (32%). With data becoming more readily accessible and governments worldwide taking an active role in investing in innovation, the US and China are starting to feel the heat from other countries.
Source: EY
The coming wave of fund liquidity risk regulation-MSCI
March 7, 2018--Asset managers globally can no longer ignore fund liquidity risk management. Fund liquidity regulation is arriving in all jurisdictions. Despite all challenges to define, observe, model, measure and therefore regulate liquidity risk, it has long been clear this day would come, given the crucial role of liquidity risk in the investment process of open-ended funds.1
Now, liquidity risk regulation has moved to center stage.
Source: MSCI
Welfare Versus GDP: What Makes People Better Off
March 7, 2018--For years, economists have worked to develop a way of measuring general well-being and comparing it across countries. The main metric has been differences in income or gross domestic product per person. But economists have long known that GDP is an imperfect measure of well-being, counting just the value of goods and services bought and sold in markets.
The challenge is to account for non-market factors such as the value of leisure, health, and home production, such as cleaning, cooking and childcare, as well as the negative byproducts of economic activity, such as pollution and inequality.
Charles Jones and Peter Klenow proposed a new index two years ago (American Economic Review, 2016) that combines data on consumption with three non-market factors-leisure, excessive inequality, and mortality—in an economically consistent way to calculate expected lifetime economic benefits across countries. In our recent working paper, Welfare vs. Income Convergence and Environmental Externalities, we updated and extended this work, attempting to include measures of environmental effects and sustainability. In this blog we look at our results from updating the new index.
view IMF Welfare vs. Income Convergence and Environmental Externalities white paper
Source: IMF
