Global ETF News Older than One Year
In a Blast From a Financial Crisis Past, Synthetic CDOs Are Back
August 28, 2017--Market for collateralized debt obligations is on the rise again after years on the decline
A decade ago, investors' bad bets on collateralized debt obligations helped fuel the crisis. Billed as safe, they turned out to be anything but. Now, more investors are returning to CDOs-and so are concerns that excess is seeping into the aging bull market.
Source: Wall Street Journal
ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis-Agriculture ETPs standout during the summer doldrums
August 28, 2017--Coffee recorded the largest weekly inflows since May 2015.
Crude oil ETPs recorded outflows for the sixth consecutive week as prices near US$50/bbl.
Nickel recorded outflows of US$11m for the week and US$25 for the month on likely profit taking.
Minor moves in fund flows in comparison to previous weeks due to the summer doldrums.
The summer doldrums have been taking a toll on the volume of flows last week. In precious metals, which are particularly sensitive to comments from central bankers, prices have remained steady as investors waited for any hints from them at the Jackson Hole meeting on Friday. Consequently inflows have been have been minimal, with US$8.8m in gold ETPs. Despite the threat of interest rate hikes there have been net flows of US$338m year-to-date in gold ETPs with outflows in short positioning, suggesting investors aren't worried about any significant downside risks for gold in the immediate future.
Source: etfsecurities.com
OECD GDP growth accelerates to 0.7% in second quarter of 2017
August 28, 2017--Quarterly growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area accelerated to 0.7% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates.
Among the Major Seven economies, in the second quarter of 2017, GDP growth accelerated strongly in Japan (to 1.0%, compared with 0.4% in the previous quarter) and the United States (to 0.6%, compared with 0.3%), while only slightly in the United Kingdom (to 0.3%, compared with 0.2%).
Growth was stable in France and Italy (at 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively), while it slowed marginally in Germany (to 0.6%, compared with 0.7% in the previous quarter).
In the European Union and the euro area growth picked up marginally to 0.6% (from 0.5%).
Year-on-year GDP growth for the OECD area accelerated to 2.4% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 2.1% in the previous quarter. Among the Major Seven economies, Germany, Japan and the United States recorded the highest annual growth rate (2.1%), while Italy recorded the lowest growth (1.5%).
Source: OECD
Risk of sharp currency moves drives investors into hedged ETFs
August 25, 2017--Investors have been piling into currency-hedged equity tracker funds, seeking protection against big moves in foreign exchange rates.
Typically foreign investors buy un-hedged equities since share prices are usually negatively correlated to currencies. In fact, they offer a partial hedge against sharp moves in foreign exchange.
Source: Reuters
ULTUMUS-Bonds, PIR & Low Risk-a smorgasbord of listings
August 25, 2017--Asia
Korea
Koomkim Bank has listed a new ETF in Seoul that tracks the S&P Asia 50 Index (277540). The index is made up of stocks from Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. 277540 is not the first ETF to track this benchmark; iShares has a similar product in the US (AIA)....
Korea Investment & Securities is listing two new covered call ETNs in Seoul (570020, 570021). 570020 tracks the KOSPI Short Futures Short Put Index, meaning it will make more money if the KOSPI declines....
China
China's Goutai Asset Management has launched a new long-dated bond ETF, called the SSE 10-year T-bond ETF (511260)..
Europe
France
Amundi's PIR tax ETF lists in Paris this week (ITALI). The PIR tax was introduced this year by the Italian government....Lyxor, the first issuer to act on this, has seen huge inflows into its PIR product.
Germany
BNP Paribas will be listing a new commodities ETF into Germany and France that tracks a basket of precious and industrial metals, together with oil and gas (EMEH)...
UK
iShares will be listing its $ Floating Rate Bond ETF in two more forms next month. Floating rate bonds "float" with interest rates, meaning the coupons they pay rise and fall with central bank's interest rates.
One will be a simple re-listing of FLOT in GBP (FLOS).
The other listed product will be FLO5.
iShares will also be listing its emerging markets government debt tracker in London, which will track the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index (JPEE). The main governments whose bonds are tracked are: Argentina, Russia, Turkey and the Philipines, as well as a score of others...
North America
Canada
First Asset will be launching a Canadian dollar hedged ETF into Toronto (RWX) tracking lower risk equities. RWX will physically track the MSCI EAFE Risk Weighted Top 175 Index...
Source: ULTUMUS-Financial Data Management
Banks tweak Euro Stoxx autocalls to cut concentration risks
August 5, 2017--Changes to popular structured products aim to help dealers reduce hedging costs, but will investors make the switch?
The Chinese stock market's Black Monday of August 24, 2015 wreaked havoc on Korean structured products desks. In the aftermath, a product developer at one investment bank in London had an idea. The bank could structure an investment that worked just like the autocallable notes that were so popular with retail investors, but without the sensitivity to correlation between stock indexes that had caused a large amount of dealers' pain during the downturn.
Source: Risk.net
Bitesize: The very volatile value of cryptocurrencies
August 24, 2017--Proponents of private cryptocurrencies argue they are a better store of value than traditional "fiat" currency.
But even if a cryptocurrency's value cannot be inflated away by large supply increases, that doesn't automatically mean its value is stable in terms of ability to buy goods and services.
Source: bankunderground.co.uk
ETFGI reports assets invested in smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a new record of US$607 billion at the end of July 2017
August 24, 2017-- ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, today reported assets invested in smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a new record of US$607 billion at the end of July 2017, according to data from ETFGI's July 2017 global smart beta equity ETF and ETP industry insights report.
Record levels of assets were reached at the end of July for equity smart beta ETFs/ETPs listed globally with US$607.17 Bn, in the United States US$538.62 Bn, in Europe US$44.84 Bn, in Canada US$14.81 Bn and in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) US$5.57 Bn.
Source: ETFGI
Researchers Bring Atomic Clock Timestamp Precision To Stock Market Trading Over Distributed Ledgers
August 24, 2017--In a move that could aid MiFID II compliance, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX) and the UK's National Physical Laboratory have carried out an experiment which saw atomic clocks used to timestamp trades which were then recorded directly on a distributed ledger.
The 'Atomic Ledger' project recorded over 20 million transactions from three hours of trading to the ChainZy distributed ledger system from vendor Z/Yen.
The experiment is being linked to MiFID II legislation slated to arrive in January, which mandates more accurate timestamping traceable to Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) to promote improved transparency and better deals for customers.
Source: finextra.com
ETFGI reports assets invested in active ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a new record of US$59 billion at the end of July 2017
August 23, 2017--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, today reported assets invested in active ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a new record of US$59 billion at the end of July 2017, according to data from ETFGI's July 2017 global active ETF and ETP industry insights report.
Record levels of assets were reached at the end of July for active ETFs/ETPs listed globally with US$59.40 Bn, US$38.33 Bn in the United States, US$9.23 Bn in Canada, US$7.91 Bn in Europe and US$3.84 Bn in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan).
Source: ETFGI
