Global ETF News Older than One Year
Persisting Divides in Global Competitiveness as Switzerland, Singapore and Finland Top Competitiveness Rankings in 2012
September 5, 2012--Competitiveness gap widening among European countries
US remains world's innovation powerhouse despite decline in overall ranking
People's Republic of China most competitive among large emerging markets;
India, Russia fall
Switzerland, for the fourth consecutive year, tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, released today by the World Economic Forum. Singapore remains in second position and Finland in third position, overtaking Sweden (4th). These and other Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with the Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th) and United Kingdom (8th). The United States (7th), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th) complete the ranking of the top 10 most competitive economies
The large emerging market economies (BRICS) display different performances. Despite a slight decline in the rankings of three places, the People’s Republic of China (29th) continues to lead the group. Of the others, only Brazil (48th) moves up this year, with South Africa (52nd), India (59th) and Russia (67th) experiencing small declines in rankings.Despite growing its overall competitiveness score, the United States continues its decline for the fourth year in a row, falling two more places to seventh position.
view the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013
Source: World Economic Forum
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly:Precious Metals Rally as Bernanke Hints at Stimulus Potential in Jackson Hole
September 4, 2012--Gold surges as Fed Chairman won't rule out use of further
'nontraditional policies'. The fallout from the Jackson Hole central bank
convention will likely remain the near term determinant of precious metals
prices, as investors weigh up the potential for further monetary easing from the US Federal Reserve.
The expectation that Fed Chairman Bernanke would deliver a QE3 bombshell in similar fashion to previous years were dashed, but investors were heartened by the Fed’s willingness to introduce additional unconventional policy if warranted by a faltering US economy..
Global gold ETP holdings have continued to set fresh record highs as a result of the optimism over additional central bank stimulus, with the much awaited ECB meeting this week. Whether the ECB is closer to a new round of stimulus remains critical, especially in the wake of Spain’s decision to delay a formal bailout request last week. Central bank gold buying led by emerging markets again in July. The latest figures released by the IMF last week showed that central banks continue to help fill the breech left by private physical demand. Emerging market holdings of gold as a percentage of foreign reserves are very low, as can be seen in the chart below. In July, Russia bought nearly 19 tonnes, taking its holdings to nearly 10% as a proportion of foreign reserves. Kazakhstan and the Ukraine also added gold to their portfolios, with 1.4 tonnes and 0.2 tonnes, respectively.
South African labour unrest keeps platinum supported, and contagion threatens gold production.
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The Options Industry Council Announces Options Trading Volume Remains On Track For Second Best Year After August Decline
September 4, 2012--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 310,936,920 total options contracts were traded in August.
This is 43.47 percent less than the all-time monthly volume record of 550,049,407 contracts traded in August 2011.
August is traditionally one of the lower volume months of any year, and last month was the lowest monthly volume recorded in 2012. However, it was the best August volume total outside of the August 2011 volume record. August also marked the 24th consecutive month the options industry has recorded at least 300 million contracts in trading volume.
Source: OIC
ETF Industry Assets Hit Another Record High
September 4, 2012--If you've been reading that exchange-traded funds are undergoing a pruning process, with a range of unpopular funds shutting down, also realize this: Industry-wide assets keep on growing.
The U.S. ETF business hit another record high in assets under management in August, at $1.102 trillion, according to Deborah Fuhr of ETFGI LLP, counting 1,178 ETFs (Figures don’t include close cousins, such as exchange-traded notes). The old record happened way back in …. July. U.S. ETF assets the previous month were $1.083 trillion.
Source: Barron's
Swaps rules are expected to boost global demand for collateral
Spetember 3, 2012--Money used to make the world go around. Now it is collateral.
This is because collateral, in securitised markets, is the key to credit. Central banks have never lent on an uncollateralised basis and they have spread this predilection.
Collateral is what banks use to fund themselves at banks and central banks, what broker-dealers use to fund themselves at banks and what fund managers use to fund their portfolios at prime brokers.
Source: Financial News
STOXX Monthly Index Report-August 2012 In Review
September 3, 2012--As of August 31, 2012 stock market indices in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and globally were up in July, according to global index provider STOXX Limited.
For the month of August, the Asia, global markets and U.S. markets were down -2.87%, -0.32% and -0.14%, respectively; while European markets were up1.86%. The full performance report is below.
Source: Mondovisione
Questions over viability of US ETFs
September 2, 2012--More than a quarter of exchange-traded funds and notes listed in the US have failed to attract enough assets to be economically viable, according to data compiled for the Financial Times.
Cutthroat competition in the fast-growing market for tradable index-tracking funds is making it harder for sponsors to cover costs and forcing some to close funds. As the number of funds increases, assets are being spread more thinly across products, forcing sponsors to lower fees further in order to compete.
Source: FT.com
Pakistani team to convince MSCI Board tomorrow
September 2, 2012--Experts have expressed hopes from the Morgan Stanley Conversion Index (MSCI) Barra Board meeting with Nadeem Naqvi, managing director, Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and Muhammad Ali, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), scheduled on September 3, as they expect that the KSE might regain the status of MSCI emerging markets, sources said on Saturday.
The prime criterion of MSCI for including any bourse in its emerging markets category is that the market capitalisation should be at least $50 billion, the sources said, adding that Pakistani bourse’s market capitalisation is around $40 billion.
Source: The News
Time for SWFs to show greater transparency
September 2, 2012--Sovereign wealth funds are suddenly on the radar. In truth, many have been there for decades but observers in the investment industry are increasingly noticing their numbers, their size, or in some cases just how big their most recent deal was, and pressure is growing for greater transparency.
Eliot Kalter, senior fellow of the Fletcher School’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Initiative, says the number of SWFs effectively doubled in the past 10 years, while Nick Tolchard, head of Invesco Middle East and global SWF co-ordination, estimates total SWF assets to be $5tn-$6tn.
Source: FT.com
EPFR Global Fund Data-Investors dip into equity funds again ahead of key policy meetings in September
August 31, 2012--Investors responded warmly to talk of increased Chinese spending on infrastructure during the final week of August as they positioned themselves for further quantitative easing, inflation, disappointment, increased volatility or some combination of these elements while maintaining their search for yield.
Flows into EPFR Global-tracked China Equity Funds jumped to a 32 week high, High Yield Bond and Gold Funds both took in over $1 billion, Floating Rate Bond Funds posted their biggest inflow since mid-April and Volatility Funds attracted fresh money for the fourth straight week.
Overall, Bond Funds collectively took in $5.3 billion during the week ending August 29, lifting year-to-date inflows over the $270 billion mark, while Equity Funds absorbed $2.1 billion and their first weekly inflow in four weeks. Money Market Funds recorded modest net outflows as commitments to US Money Market Funds were more than offset by redemptions from their European counterparts.
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Source: EPFR Global
