Global ETF News Older than One Year
UPDATE 1-No push to make Deutsche Bank exclusively German-Co-CEO
March 17, 2015--European banks not ready to expand balance sheets-Jain
Needs strong capital markets to offset banks-Jain
EU Commissioner-we look at jobs growth effect of rules (Adds Co-CEO comment)
Deutsche Bank is under no pressure to focus its business on its domestic market or abjure international investment banking, its Co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters
Bitcoin Users To Approach 5 Million by 2019, Juniper Research Finds
Adoption Likely to be Limited to Niche Demographics
March 17, 2015--A new report from Juniper Research has found that the number of active Bitcoin users worldwide will reach 4.7 million by the end of 2019, up from just over 1.3 million last year.
However, the report, 'The Future of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Altcoin Impact & Opportunities 2015-2019' argues that usage will be continue to be dominated by exchange trading, with retail adoption largely restricted to relatively niche demographics.
Retail Activity "Extremely Low"
According to the report, while a number of high profile retailers are enabling Bitcoin payment, activity levels from both online and offline deployments are extremely low.
Source: Juniper Research
Passive funds' rise heightens fear of shock
March 16, 2015--In the past two years, the growth of passive investment funds, which track the markets and charge cheap fees, has been one of the main stories in the world of asset management.
Last year Vanguard, one of the world's biggest providers of passive investments with $2tn in trackers and more than $450bn in global exchange traded funds...
Source: FT.com
Nasdaq president dismisses tech bubble fears
March 16, 2015--The president of exchange group Nasdaq OMX has dismissed suggestions of a new tech sector bubble,
despite a multiyear rally that has returned internet stocks to the highs of the dotcom boom.
Source: FT.com
Basel III implementation assessments of Hong Kong SAR and Mexico as well as follow-up reports published by the Basel Committee
March 16, 2015--Today the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published reports assessing the implementation of the Basel risk-based capital framework and the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) for Hong Kong SAR and Mexico,
These form part of a series of reports on Basel Committee members' implementation of Basel standards under the Committee's Regulatory Consistency Assessment Programme (RCAP). A key component of the RCAP is to assess the consistency and completeness of a jurisdiction's adopted standards and the significance of any deviations from the regulatory framework. For the first time, the assessments now also cover the regulatory implementation of the LCR standards. The RCAP does not take account of a jurisdiction's bank supervision practices nor do they evaluate the adequacy of regulatory capital for individual banks or a banking system as a whole.
Source: BIS
ETF Securities Precious Metals Weekly-What Might Matter More Than US Dollar Strength?
March 16, 2015--The US dollar is on pace for 50% gain. What does this mean for Gold? The US dollar ended the week with a 2015 increase of 11% as measured by the US dollar index. On an annualized basis, it is on pace for about a 50% gain. Since 1968, the largest annual increase in the US dollar index was 16%, in 1981-gold declined 33% that year.
On a relative basis, the velocity of the current US dollar rally was last exceeded by the rally in 1980-81, as depicted on the chart below showing the US dollar index currently 17% above its 52-week moving average.
More recently, the most extreme level the US dollar index stretched above the 52-week MA was 16% in November of 2008-a time most would consider somewhat unprecedented. This period proved to be good support for gold. When the US dollar rallies so rapidly, the pressure on the US dollar price of the quasi-currency precious metals (PMs) can be overwhelming, yet gold has declined only moderately (-1.4% in 2014 and -2.4% in 2015 YTD). Is gold setting up for a plunge or is it just impressively resilient, building a foundation for the next rally? If the US dollar continues the blistering rally pace, the PMs are likely to remain under pressure. But at some point, the US dollar should stabilize and mean revert, which should leave the PMs on solid footings, potentially similar to 2008.
Source: ETF Securities Research
Sifi rules set to net more asset managers
March 15, 2015--A greater number of asset managers, hedge funds and private equity managers face tighter supervision and constraints after global regulators widened their search for financial
players deemed to be 'systemically important'.
Source: FT.com
Flow Traders Said to Prepare IPO of Dutch High-Frequency Firm
March 15, 2015--High-frequency trading firm Flow Traders BV is preparing for an initial public offering that could value the company at more than 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said.
Flow Traders is working with Rothschild and interviewing other banks to help manage the sale later this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public.
Source: Bloomberg
Global energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide stalled in 2014
IEA data point to emissions decoupling from economic growth for the first time in 40 years
March 13, 2015--Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicate that global emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector stalled in 2014, marking the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of the greenhouse gas that was not tied to an economic downturn.
"This gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change, the most important threat facing us today," said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol, recently named to take over from Maria van der Hoeven as the next IEA Executive Director.
Source: (IEA) International Energy Agency (IEA)
IEA releases Oil Market Report for March
Steady climb in global demand growth prompts slight upward revision of 2015 forecast
March 13, 2015--Having bottomed‐out in the second quarter of 2014, global oil demand growth has since steadily risen, with year-on-year gains estimated at around 0.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) for the final quarter of last year and 1.0 mb/d for the current quarter, the IEA Oil Market Report for March informed subscribers.
The forecast of demand growth for all of 2015 was raised by 75 kb/d to 1.0 mb/d, bringing global demand to an average 93.5 mb/d.
Source: IEA (International Energy Agency)
