Global ETF News Older than One Year
South East Europe Economy Shrinks in 2012, Faces Risks in 2013
More intensive policy reforms needed
December 18, 2012--The combined economies of the six South East European countries will shrink by 0.6 percent in 2012, and face formidable risks going into 2013 with expected growth of 1.6 percent, says a new World Bank South East Europe Regular Economic Report No.3 published today.
The South East Europe Regular Economic Report (SEE RER) covers six countries (SEE6) - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia - and foresees that the road to sustained recovery will be arduous with sluggish growth in 2013 at best, and with significant risks. Among the clouds on the horizon for 2013 are the risks to recovery of the Eurozone and high commodity prices––risks to which all the SEE6 countries are highly vulnerable.
Source: World Bank
BlackRock Investment Institute-ETP Landscape 2012 Global Handbook
December 18, 2012--The BlackRock Investment Institute-ETP Landscape 2012 Global Handbook is now available.
The 2012 Global Handbook is a comprehensive directory of 4,748 Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) listed globally.
Source: BlackRock Investment Institute
IMF Working paper-Income and Democracy: Lipset's Law Revisited
December 17, 2012--Summary: We revisit Lipset's law, which posits a positive and significant relationship between income and democracy.
Using dynamic and heterogeneous panel data estimation techniques, we find a significant and negative relationship between income and democracy: higher/lower incomes per capita hinder/trigger democratization. Decomposing overall income per capita into its resource and non-resource components, we find that the coefficient on the latter is positive and significant while that on the former is significant but negative, indicating that the role of resource income is central to the result.
view the IMF Working paper-Income and Democracy: Lipset's Law Revisited
Source: IMF
Coal's share of global energy mix to continue rising, with coal closing in on oil as world's top energy source by 2017
IEA's Medium Term Coal Market Report sees coal demand increasing in nearly every region of the world except US, where shale gas is displacing coal
December 17, 2012-Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to rise, and by 2017 coal will come close to surpassing oil as the world's top energy source, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today as it released its annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report (MCMR).
Although the growth rate of coal slows from the breakneck pace of the last decade, global coal consumption by 2017 stands at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (btoe), versus around 4.40 btoe for oil, based on IEA medium-term projections. The IEA expects that coal demand will increase in every region of the world except in the United States, where coal is being pushed out by natural gas.
Source: International Energy Agency (IEA)
Component Changes Made To STOXX Select Dividend Indices
December 17, 2012--STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, tradable and global index concepts, today announced component changes in the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100
Index, STOXX Europe Select Dividend 30 Index and EURO STOXX Select Dividend 30 Index.
Due to a cancellation of its dividend payments, KPN (Netherlands, Telecommunications, KPN.AS) is no longer eligible to be included in the index.
The following component changes to the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index, STOXX Europe Select Dividend 30 Index and EURO STOXX Select Dividend 30 Index will be effective with the open of markets on December 20, 2012.
Source: STOXX
Quarterly Changes to the NASDAQ Q-50 Index
December 17, 2012--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), parent of the world's first electronic stock market and a leading index provider' today announced the results of the quarterly re-ranking of the NASDAQ Q-50 IndexSM(Nasdaq:NXTQ), which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, December 24, 2012.
The following fourteen securities will be added to the Index: ARM Holdings, Plc (Nasdaq:ARMH), Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:EA), Flextronics International Ltd. (Nasdaq:FLEX), Lam Research Corporation (Nasdaq:LRCX), Medivation, Inc. (Nasdaq:MDVN), MercadoLibre, Inc. (Nasdaq:MELI), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq:MRVL), Nordson Corporation (Nasdaq:NDSN), Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX), Patterson Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDCO), Research In Motion Limited (Nasdaq:RIMM), Ryanair Holdings Plc (Nasdaq:RYAAY), VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN) and Yandex N.V. (Nasdaq:YNDX).
Source: NASDAQ OMX
ETF Securities-ETFS Precious Metals Weekly-'Fiscal Cliff' Discussions Dominate Precious Metals in Final Days of 2012
December 17, 2012--The US 'fiscal cliff' and Europe growth risks are the dark clouds over an otherwise improving outlook for the "industrial" precious metals. US industrial production rose 1.1% m-o-m in November, far higher than the 0.3% consensus expectation and is likely to maintain that momentum judging by the flash December Markit manufacturing PMI which rose to an 8-month high.
The flash HSBC Chinese manufacturing PMI rose to a 14-month high of 50.9, confirming the economic recovery is gaining momentum in China as well. Normally, the more cyclical precious metals such as silver, platinum and palladium should perform well in this environment. However, businesses remain reluctant to invest because of the uncertainty surrounding potential automatic tax rises and benefit cuts if the US Congress doesn't agree to a new fiscal program. With minimal economic data to be released in the final weeks of the year, the markets will be particularly sensitive to outcomes from the budget negotiations. Holdings of gold ETPs extended their all-time highs to $84.6bn as investors continue to hedge against worst-case outcomes from fiscal cliff discussions.
FOMC announces extension of QE3 and confirms its commitment to lower unemployment. The Fed confirmed that it will be replacing "operation twist" with $45b of monthly purchases of longer-dated treasuries from January 2013 (in addition to the $40bn of MBS currently purchased every month). Although the move was already largely priced into precious metals, the Fed's actions are significant as they will see balance sheet expansion (whereas operation twist simply changed the maturity of existing assets). Importantly, the Fed has made its ultra-accommodative policy conditional on unemployment remaining above 6.5% and inflation projections remaining no more than 2.5%, providing substantial leeway for continued expansionary policy.
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Source: ETF Securities
EEX facilitates access for US participants
December 17, 2012--The European Energy Exchange (EEX), Europe's leading energy exchange, aims to expand its presence in the US market. Therefore, EEX and the derivatives marketplace Eurex Exchange have launched a joined incentive program to win more Eurex participants from the United States, who will also trade on the EEX.
In the framework of the existing co-operation, Eurex participants can use the current infrastructure and a simplified admission process to trade and clear the power, natural gas, emissions and coal products offered by EEX.
As an incentive for this expanded partnership, EEX and Eurex will not charge the annual fee of 12,500 Euro (for trading on all EEX markets) for the year 2013. This program is valid for US based companies which become a member between 1 January and 30 June 2013.
Source: Eurex
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System : Federal Reserve Board releases proposed rules to strengthen the oversight of U.S. operations of foreign banks
December 14, 2012--The Federal Reserve Board on Friday proposed rules to strengthen the oversight of U.S. operations of foreign banks.
The proposal would require foreign banking organizations with a significant U.S. presence to create an intermediate holding company over their U.S. subsidiaries, which would help facilitate consistent and enhanced supervision and regulation of the U.S. operations of these foreign banks. Foreign banks would also be required to maintain stronger capital and liquidity positions in the United States, helping to increase the resiliency of their U.S. operations.
“The proposed rulemaking is another important step toward strengthening our regulatory framework to address the risks that large, interconnected financial institutions pose to U.S. financial stability,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said.
EPFR Global Fund Data News Release-Fund flows reflect pre-Christmas cheer about China, Eurozone and fiscal cliff
December 14, 2012--Investors may not believe in Santa Claus. But, in the run-up to Christmas, there's evidence they believe in China's rebound and the Eurozone's ability to muddle through.
Flows into EPFR Global China Equity Funds hit a four year high during the week ending December 12 while Europe Bond and Equity Funds both took in over $1 billion.
A modicum of faith that US lawmakers will not drive the country over the fiscal cliff and the Federal Reserve’s latest easing measures also bolstered risk appetite, with flows bypassing US Government Bond, Dividend Equity and Gold Funds in favor of funds investing in emerging markets debt, junk bonds and emerging markets equity. Dividend Equity Funds posted outflows for only the fifth time in the 50 weeks year-to-date and seventh time since the beginning of 2011.
Overall, EPFR Global-tracked Equity Funds posted net inflows of $8.9 billion during the week, over half of which flowed into Emerging Markets Equity Funds, while Bond Funds absorbed $5.2 billion which took YTD inflows over the $460 billion mark. Money Market Funds experienced modest redemptions totaling $3.5 billion.
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Source: EPFR
