Global ETF News Older than One Year
Institutions and Innovation Increasingly Important for Competitiveness
Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 finds highly innovative countries with strong institutions continue to top international competitiveness rankings
United States reverses its four-year downward trend and Japan rises to ninth place
September 4, 2013--Excellent innovation and strong institutional environments are increasingly influencing economies' competitiveness, according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, which is launched today.
The report's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) places Switzerland at the top of the ranking for the fifth year running. Singapore and Finland remain in second and third positions respectively. Germany moves up two places (4th) and the United States reverses a four-year downward trend, climbing two places to fifth. Hong Kong SAR (7th) and Japan (9th) also close the gap on the most competitive economies, while Sweden (6th), the Netherlands (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th) fall.
view the WEF The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 report
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
IMF Update on Global Prospects and Policy Challenges
September 4, 2013--Executive Summary
This report provides an interim update of global developments and risks since the July Surveillance Note.
Global growth remains subdued but its underlying dynamics are changing. At the global level, major economies are seeing increasingly different growth dynamics and their relative cyclical positions are changing.
Recent indicators point to stronger underlying activity in several advanced economies while key emerging economies have slowed. The impulse to global growth is expected to come mainly from the United States in the near term.
Against this background, financial conditions are generally tighter and market pressures have become acute for some emerging economies. Emerging economies were hardest hit following Fed "tapering" remarks and disappointing news about their growth. More recently, market pressures have been concentrated in certain emerging economies with important vulnerabilities. Both push and pull factors appear at work with respect to capital flow reversals and continued heightened market volatility for some—driven by changing expectations of monetary tightening in advanced economies and weaker fundamentals locally in key emerging economies.
view the Update on Global Prospects and Policy Challenges
Source: IMF
Average daily volume of 6.6 million contracts at Eurex Group in August
September 3, 2013--In August 2013, the international derivatives markets of Eurex Group recorded an average daily volume of 6.6 million contracts (August 2012: 7.2 million).
Of those, 4.5 million were Eurex Exchange contracts (August 2012: 5.1 million), and 2.1 million contracts (August 2012: 2.1 million) were traded at the U.S.-based International Securities Exchange (ISE). In total, 98.9 million contracts were traded at Eurex Exchange and 46.4 million at ISE.
Source: Eurex
Advanced economies growing again but some emerging economies slowing, says OECD
September 3, 2013--A moderate recovery is underway in the major advanced economies, according to the OECD's latest Interim Economic Assessment.
Growth is proceeding at encouraging rates in North America, Japan and the UK. The euro area as a whole is out of recession, although output remains weak in a number of countries. view the OECD's latest Interim Economic Assessment
Source: OECD
The Options Industry Council Announces August Options Volume Rose 4 Percent
August 3, 2013--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 321,976,044 total options contracts traded in August, which is up 3.55 percent compared to last year when 310,936,920 contracts were traded.
Average daily volume for the month came in at 14,635,274 contracts, up 8.26 percent compared to last August's 13,518,996 contracts. Year-to-date volume stood at 2,758,96,,425 contracts, 2.11 percent more than the 2,701,857,820 contracts traded in the same period last year.
Equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) for August was 291,214,395 contracts, up 1.79 percent compared to August last year when 286,100,861 contracts traded.
Source: Options Industry Council (OIC)
Margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives-final report issued by the Basel Committee and IOSCO
September 2, 2013--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released today the final framework for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives.
The framework is available on the websites of the Bank for International Settlements and IOSCO.
Under the globally agreed standards published today, all financial firms and systemically important non-financial entities that engage in non-centrally cleared derivatives will have to exchange initial and variation margin commensurate with the counterparty risks arising from such transactions. The framework has been designed to reduce systemic risks related to over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets, as well as to provide firms with appropriate incentives for central clearing while managing the overall liquidity impact of the requirements.
view the Margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives
Source: BIS
ETF Securities Precious Metals Weekly-Middle East Tensions Boost Precious Metals
September 2, 2013--Gold and silver rise but platinum and palladium suffer. Gold and silver
continued to lead the precious metals last week on the back of escalating tensionsin the middle east.
Silver added 2.5% for an August gain of 18.6%, the best monthly performance since January 2012. Platinum and palladium came under pressure in response to declining equity prices, as tensions in Syria threatened to destabilize the global economic recovery. In addition to Middle East tensions and an upcoming US Congressional budget ceiling debate, the marketplace will greet the official end of summer with August US unemployment on Friday, September 6. Following the disappointing US unemployment data in July, precious metals have performed strongly, reasserting their valuable portfolio diversification characteristics. Gold and silver are likely to continue to outperform if August jobs data disappoints like July data. In the absence of investment demand, the decline in prices in the first half of the 2013 revealed strong physical demand, notably strategic buying from Asia. The fundamental backdrop for gold remains robust with tighter supply, notably from reduced recycling levels in Q2 and diminishing mining productivity. With a strong fundamental environment and on-going structural economic risks, particularly elevated global debt burdens, the mediumterm outlook remains constructive for the gold price.
Source: ETF Securities Research
Deutsche Boerse presents recommendations for capital market communication in the area of sustainability
Investors want a more comprehensive picture of companies/Deutsche Börse gives issuers a practical guide
September 2, 2013--Deutsche Börse today presented a best practice guide with recommendations
on comprehensive capital market communication in the area of sustainability.
Non-financial aspects such as environmental and social information and elements of corporate governance constitute a considerable proportion of company value.
The best practice guide serves as a voluntary aide to issuers in producing their sustainability reports. It aims to encourage companies to make use of sustainability issues in capital market communication in a targeted way.
view the Communicating sustainability-Seven recommendations for issuers
Source: Deutsche Börse
UK's Social Stock Exchange set to include international members
August 30, 2013--A UK online portal that aims to connect investors with companies making a positive social impact-and has earned the backing of David Cameron-is planning to expand internationally.
The Social Stock Exchange, which admits only those London-listed companies that pass an independent assessment of their social and environmental contribution, said it is in talks with several overseas companies about joining its platform.
Source: FT.com
Technology redefines financial services
August 30, 2013--What does the video game Donkey Kong have in common with your investment portfolio? Very little you might think, yet plans being drawn up by UK wealth managers to keep customers engaged are being heavily influenced by game designers.
Seven Investment Management has hired the team that worked on game titles such as Donkey Kong and Golden Eye to build a new portal, which runs on mobile devices, that allows customers to "play" with their investments, viewing and managing their portfolios in an interactive way.
Source: FT.com
