Global ETF News Older than One Year
Smart beta's potential starting to overwhelm ETF providers
December 20, 2015--Exchange traded fund sponsors and index providers are churning out new smart beta benchmarks at a rapid clip, but the challenge now is explaining to investors how the latest approach to mixing and matching factors is better
than-or at least different from-the ones that came before.
Source: FT.com
Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund Transitions to New FTSE Index
December 20, 2015--Vanguard announced today that the $53 billion Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund, including its ETF share class (ticker: VEA), will begin tracking a new FTSE transition index as part of a two-phase change to a new target index, the FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index. The change will be effective with the opening of trading on December 21, 2015.
In the first phase, the fund will track the FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Transition Index, an interim index that will gradually increase exposure to small-capitalization stocks and Canadian securities, while proportionately reducing the weightings of other stocks.
Source: Vanguard
Infographic-Junk Bonds Finally Capitulate to Lower Oil Price Environment
December 18, 2015--High-yield bond ETFs are down double-digits since the summer.
Over the month of December, the market for high-yield bonds (also known as junk bonds) had a mini-meltdown that's raised some eyebrows.
Junk bonds, which are non-investment grade debt instruments that are issued by companies with poor credit ratings, are both high-risk and high-reward. If the companies don't default on their payments, the bonds pay a nice premium to the investor. In fact, the risk and return on junk bonds is generally comparable with that of stocks. view
Source: visualcapitalist.com
DECPG Weekly-December 18, 2015
December 18, 2015--Taking Stock
U.S. Fed raised policy rates; IP contracted in November. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised policy interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. On Wednesday, in a widely anticipated move, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) increased the target range of the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 0.25-0.5 percent.
The FOMC policy statement emphasized that future interest rate increases would be gradual and would depend on incoming data. Meanwhile, U.S. industrial production contracted by 0.6 percent in November (m/m), the largest decrease since March 2012, following the 0.4 percent fall in October (Figure 1). The decline was more than expected, partly due to a sharp drop in utilities output, which fell by 1.1 percent. Manufacturing output was unchanged.
Euro Area IP rose more than expected; PMI dipped. Euro Area industrial production advanced 0.6 percent (m/m) in October, reversing a 0.3 percent fall in September. The latest reading exceeded expectations and was the first monthly increase in 3 months, led by a rise in capital goods output and durable consumer goods production. Meanwhile, the flash Markit composite output index for the Euro Area unexpectedly fell to 54.0 in December from 54.2 in November, reflecting diverging performance in manufacturing and services.
Renaissance Capital's 2015 US IPO Annual Review
December 18, 2015--Coming off of two banner years, the 2015 IPO market was a disappointment with 169 IPOs raising only $30 billion, a six-year low.
There is no single explanation for the decline in 2015 activity; rather, it was driven by a number of factors, including uncertainties about Federal Reserve and European monetary policies, concerns over the Chinese economy, poor IPO performance, declining energy prices and increases in M&A and private market transactions.
view the Renaissance Capital's 2015 US IPO Annual Review
Source: Renaissance Capital
Wealth managers must fight harder for next generation of clients
December 18, 2015--Wealth managers need to sharpen up if they are to retain the next generation of affluent families as clients, a report into global family wealth...
Source: FT.com
Outcomes from COP21: Forests as a Key Climate and Development Solution
December 18, 2015--STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Healthy forests and landscapes can help us realize real reductions in global emissions in the short and long term.
The important role that forests have in addressing climate change was formally recognized in the Paris Agreement.
The specific inclusion of REDD+ in the text builds on years of work find ways to positively incentivize countries to reduce carbon emissions at a landscape scale and conserve their standing forests at the same time.
Last weekend, at COP21 in Paris, international governments recognized and acknowledged the key role that resilient forests and landscapes play for both climate change and development in the final agreement achieved and through a number of financial pledges and green initiatives.
Source: World Bank
World Bank Keeps 2015 Growth Projections for Russia, and Slightly Revises 2016-2017 Outlook
December 18, 205--December 18, 2015--The World Bank has updated its economic outlook for Russia for 2015-2017 to reflect a recent downward adjustment in oil prices. The new most likely scenario assumes an average oil price of US$51.9 per barrel for 2015 and of US$49.4 per barrel for 2016 from previously projected US$53.0 per barrel in 2015 and 2016.
The assumed lower oil prices are expected to have no impact on growth in the last quarter of 2015. On this basis, the World Bank keeps its 2015 projections of a 3.8 percent real GDP contraction by this year. Growth for 2016 was revised slightly down to -0.7 percent (from -0.6 percent).
"The revised forecast is largely driven by the recent downward adjustment in oil prices that is expected to keep pressure on the ruble exchange rate, somewhat delaying the retreat of inflation in 2016," said Birgit Hansl, World Bank Lead Economist for the Russian Federation.
view the Russia Economic Report-Balancing Economic Adjustment and Transformation report
Source: World Bank
International Migration at All-Time High
December 18, 2015--The number of international migrants is expected to surpass 250 million this year, an all-time high, as people search for economic opportunity. And, fast growing developing countries have increasingly become a strong magnet for people from other parts of the developing world.
In a demonstration of their economic footprint, international migrants will send $601 billion to their families in their home countries this year, with developing countries receiving $441 billion, says the Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016, produced by the World Bank Group's Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) initiative.
Source: World Bank
BIS-Identification and measurement of step-in risk released by the Basel Committee
December 17, 2015--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today released a consultative document entitled Identification and measurement of step-in risk. The objective is to mitigate potential spillover effects from the shadow banking system to banks.
This work falls within the G20 initiative to strengthen the oversight and regulation of the shadow banking system and mitigate the associated potential systemic risks.
view the Identification and measurement of step-in risk-consultative document (December 2015)
Source: BIS
