Global ETF News Older than One Year
FTSE Russell Announces Launch of FTSE 50% Hedged Index Series
July 22, 2015--Underpins investor demand for more diverse currency index measures
Initially available on FTSE Developed ex-North America, Europe and Japan Indexes
IndexIQ to use as basis for the first suite of 50% currency-neutral hedged ETFs
FTSE Russell, the global index provider, today announced the launch of the FTSE 50% Hedged Index Series, becoming the first index provider to introduce an index series that is 50% hedged to the US dollar. The new suite of international equity benchmarks is designed to help index users evaluate their currency exposures and hedging strategies when investing outside the US.
Source: FTSE
Here's why ETFs are overtaking hedge funds
July 22, 2015--The active versus passive debate just got a new wrinkle, and one analyst thinks he knows why.
Exchange-traded funds, which are the primary vehicle for passive management, now have assets under management greater than hedge funds, according to a count from research firm ETFGI. ETFs primarily follow market indexes, while hedge funds use a mix of strategies to beat those same benchmarks.
Source: CNBC.com
World Gold Council-Investment commentary, looking into H2 2015
July 21, 2015--Despite economic uncertainty in some regions, the gold price declined in the first half of 2015. While puzzling to some investors, this is consistent with market expectations that the risks could be contained.
We believe that the gold price already reflects a possible rate hike later this year and that the US-centred perspective is missing a more comprehensive view of the market.
This latest edition of our Investment Commentary examines gold's year-to-date performance and explores the potential tailwinds and headwinds it may face during H2 2015:
Current market risks seem to be contained to either a sector or a region, but a prolonged environment of low rates has increased risk exposure globally
Volatility in the US stock market remains relatively tame and, historically, these periods are good opportunities for investors to buy portfolio protection
Source: World Gold Council
Eurex expands its dividend index derivatives offering
Introduction of first global STOXX dividend index derivatives/Launch of STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index contracts on 20 July
July 20, 2015--The international derivatives marketplace Eurex Exchange, part of Deutsche Börse Group, launched new futures and options based on the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index yesterday.
With this step, Eurex Exchange expands its dividend index product suite, which currently comprises the DivDAX and Euro STOXX Select Dividend 30 indices. Whereas the two existing contracts cover German and European stocks, the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index offers investors the ideal tool to invest into 100 high dividend-yielding companies across developed countries from North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
As of June 2015, nearly 1.7 billion euros in assets are invested in ETFs that are based on the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index.
Source: Eurex
Institutions bulk up their ETF exposure
July 20, 2015--Insurance companies, pension funds and other institutional investors are becoming increasingly comfortable with exchange-traded funds and now account for 56% of the $2 trillion invested in ETFs listed in the US and 42% of the $2.6 trillion globally.
Uptake reached a new high in 2014, with 3,798 institutions investing in one or more ETF in 2014 compared with 3,590 in the previous year.
Source: Financial News
IMF Working paper-Systemic Risk, Aggregate Demand, and Commodity Prices
July 20, 2015--Summary: The paper presents a global model with systemic and country risks, as well as commodity prices.We show that systemic risk shocks have an important impact on world economic activity, with the busts in world output gap corresponding to unobserved systemic risk associated with major financial events.
In addition, systemic risk shocks are shown to be important drivers of output gaps while country risk premium shocks can have important effects on the trade balance. Commodity prices, in particular the price of oil, are shown to be demand driven. The model performs well at one-and four-quarter horizons compared to a survey of analysts' forecasts. In addition, systemic risk shocks explain a large share of the forecast variance for the world output gap, country output gaps, the price of oil, and country risk premiums. The importance of systemic risk shocks lends support for financial surveillance with a systemic focus.
Source: IMF
IMF Working paper-From Systemic Banking Crises to Fiscal Costs: Risk Factors
July 20, 2015--Summary: This paper examines the risk factors associated with fiscal costs of systemic banking crises using cross-country data.
We differentiate between immediate direct fiscal costs of government intervention (e.g., recapitalization and asset purchases) and overall fiscal costs of banking crises as proxied by changes in the public debt-to-GDP ratio. We find that both direct and overall fiscal costs of banking crises are high when countries enter the crisis with large banking sectors that rely on external funding, have leveraged non-financial private sectors, and use guarantees on bank liabilities during the crisis. The better quality of banking supervision and the higher coverage of deposit insurance help, however, alleviate the direct fiscal costs. We also identify a possible policy trade-off: costly short-term interventions are not necessarily associated with larger increases in public debt, supporting the thesis that immediate intervention may be actually cost-effective over time.
Source: IMF
Gold-mining index drops to lowest in 14 years
July 20, 2015--The index of gold-mining stocks fell to the lowest since April 2001 after the precious metal slid to a five-year low and local producers battle rising costs.
The five-member FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index dropped as much as 5.5%, Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] Mining led the decline, losing as much as 7.3% to the lowest since January 1998.
Source: FIN24
The Economy of Things
July 19, 2015--The Internet of Things is poised to turn the physical assets all around us into participants in real-time global digital markets-indexed, searched, and traded as any online commodity.
This report, produced by IBM in collaboration with Oxford Economics, explores the impact of this transformation, looking first at a historical case of digital industry disruption, then presenting the findings of macro-economic case studies.
view the The Economy of Things-Extracting new value from the Internet of Things
Source: IBM
Emerging Markets Had Biggest Outflow Since 2009, JPMorgan Says
July 17, 2015--Capital outflows reached $120 billion in the second quarter
Investors pulled $142 billion from China during the period
Capital outflows from developing countries reached $120 billion last quarter, the most since 2009, fueled by an exodus from China amid concern over the strength of the country's economy, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Source: Bloomberg
