Global ETF News Older than One Year
Alpha smarter than beta
But smart beta assets still double in two years
February 16. 2015--Towers Watson's institutional investment clients globally allocated over $8bn to smart beta strategies during 2014, bringing the total exposure to around $40bn (in 550 portfolios) in these strategies, across a range of asset classes.
This compares to its clients having a $32bn exposure to smart beta strategies at the end of 2013 and $20bn in 2012.
Luba Nikulina, global head of manager research at Towers Watson, said: "Interest in thinking smartly about betas within portfolios remains high but there is a considerable degree of caution about the proliferation of products labelled "smart beta".
Source: Tower Watson
Deutsche Bank Should Mull Split, Smith Writes in Financial News
February 16, 2015--Deutsche Bank AG should consider splitting its investment bank from its retail business, Roy Smith and former Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Brad Hintz wrote in Financial News Monday.
The firm is battling costs, pressure on margins, poor trading returns, demand for additional capital as well as cultural challenges in its London-based securities unit, according to Smith, finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, and Hintz, adjunct professor at Stern.
Source: Bloomberg
ETF Portfolio Solutions founder moves to MSCI
February 16, 2015--Founder of ETF Portfolio Solutions Tim Bradbury has announced he is moving to MSCI as its vice president of ETF client coverage in Australia.
Based in Sydney, Bradbury will look after increasing visibility, awareness and usage of the MSCI indexes within the exchange traded fund market in Australia, with a focus on retail distribution networks and self-managed super funds.
Source: Money Management
MSCI reclassification offers promise of long-term gain
February 15, 2015--Late in 2014, following their annual review of the Global Industry Classification Standard, index providers MSCI and S&P announced the creation of a real estate sector,
which separates bricks-and-mortar stocks from purely financial services and will...
Source: Financial News
Japan Exchange CEO eyes takeovers in certain segments-Boersen-Zeitung
February 14, 2015--Tokyo bourse operator Japan Exchange Group Inc (JPX) (8697.T) is considering takeovers in certain areas of its business but is not looking at large cross-border exchange mergers, its chief executive told a German newspaper.
"I am not thinking about direct takeovers between Tokyo and Europe," Atsushi Saito told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday.
Source: Reuters
DECPG Global Weekly-February 13, 2015
February 13, 2015--Taking Stock
EU and Greece failed to find agreement over bailout conditions. Unable to arrive to an agreement over the bailout
conditions for Greece, Eurozone finance ministers, along with the heads of the International Monetary Fund and the
European Central Bank, pledged to keep talking in the coming days with the hope of coming up with a plan at their next meeting.
Meanwhile, the ECB extended another €5bn in emergency loans to Greek banks on the fears that a spate of withdrawals could leave Greek lenders short of funding. Despite the breakdown in talks, Greek bond yields fell. Yields on the 3-year bond plunged 232 basis points to about 18 per cent, while those on the 10-year bond dropped by 46 basis points to 9.97 percent. Meanwhile, Greek GDP contracted 0.2 percent (q/q) in Q4, sharply down from Q3's 0.7 percent expansion.
Source: World Bank
7 Emerging Market Shifts Investors Must Watch
February 13, 2015--Brown Brothers Harriman points to seven recent developments in developing economies that mark important shifts for investors:
1) The Mexican central bank has taken rate cuts off the table (for now.)
2) Venezuela's modification of the FX regime seems like more of the same.
3) Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's popularity fell off a cliff.
The latest polls showed that those who rate her government positively fell from 42% to 23%-the worst ratings for a president since 1998, when President Cardoso devalued the currency.
Moreover, 77% of the people interviewed believe that she knew about the corruption at Petrobras (PBR).
4) The Indian political landscape his shifted: The ruling BJP lost badly in the Delhi local elections, calling into question just how far Prime Minister Narendra Modi can push his reform agenda nationally.
Source: Barron's
Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2014
February 12, 2015--Executive summary:
This section of the report considers the main themes to have emerged in global gold demand and supply during 2014.
Full year gold demand totalled 3,923.7 tonnes in 2014 (from 4,087.6t in 2013). The 4% year-on-year drop was unsurprising as consumer demand was never likely to match the previous year's record surge.
Source: World Gold Council
Warning-Falling (U.S. Treasury) Objects
February 12, 2015--The remarkable collapse in the price of oil-a key global price that has virtually halved in the space of just a few months-has received a lot of attention lately.
Meanwhile, another significant shift has taken place in recent months that is just as surprising and has wide-reaching global implications-the dramatic drop in long-term U.S. Treasury bond yields. The last time we saw 10-year Treasury bond yields this low was in early May 2013. As many will remember, this didn’t last long and when it corrected, it set off a burst of volatility across emerging markets.
Source: IMF
HK's CSOP expanding ETF business to US
February 12, 2015--Hong Kong-based CSOP Asset Management has been busy this year with new fund launches in the territory, where it is actively trying to drum up more retail business in a bid to get more institutional investors interested.
Simultaneously, it is laying the groundwork for a US business, aiming for a first-half listing for an exchange traded fund in the market.
Source: FT.com
