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EU and US adopt blueprint for open and stable investment climates
April 10, 2012--EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States Michael Froman agreed on an ambitious set of investment principles and openly invite other countries to follow suit. In the framework of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), the EU and the US have developed a blueprint for creating and maintaining stable, predictable and transparent investment regimes.
The principles cover the elements which the EU and the US believe are necessary to attract long-term sustainable investment.
"Open investment markets generate growth and jobs – and these investment principles will support such an open investment climate," said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. "It's another example of where the EU and the US are working together to keep trade and investment flowing worldwide. It shows that EU-US cooperation in the Transatlantic Economic Council delivers."
The Statement on Shared Principles for International Investment urges governments to maintain open, transparent and non-discriminatory investment climates. Simultaneously it confirms that governments can commit to a high level of investment protection and still maintain the right to regulate in order to pursue legitimate public policy objectives. In the view of the EU, such objectives include the environment, health, safety, labour or cultural diversity. The Statement also stresses that governments should not lower their standards, for example in relation to human rights or the environment, in order to attract foreign direct investment.
China Merchants Securities (HK) Co., Ltd. Implements NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS Broker to Manage Equities Surveillance
April 9, 2012--China Merchants Securities (HK) Co, Ltd. ("CMS"), a wholly owned subsidiary of China Merchants Securities Co., Ltd ("China Merchants Securities"), has implemented NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS Broker solution for surveillance and compliance monitoring of its equities trading activity.
CMS' compliance team will use the SMARTS Broker solution to enhance surveillance capabilities in monitoring both client and employee trading for abuse across disparate trading systems. Easy to deploy as a hosted solution, SMARTS Broker helps satisfy CMS' need for more robust surveillance capabilities. CMS will utilize the automated trade monitoring solution to facilitate quick identification of suspicious trading behavior and intuitive detection of potential market manipulation. SMARTS Broker will provide CMS compliance professionals with actionable insight and sophisticated alerts for insider trading, market manipulation, and violations of order handling rules, watch lists and restricted lists.
Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange Weekly Market Commentary
April 8, 2012--Economic Data Overview
There have been two diverging themes in the market, these are the strengthening US economic recovery and continued crisis of confidence in European debt markets.
This week saw the release of Federal Reserve minutes recording a large majority opposed to QE3. A decision we see as clear evidence, that the chance of another round of quantitative easing, ever, is very unlikely. This vote is completely at odds with the dovish tone used by Ben Bernanke in recent press conferences. Gold has been battered by the news and the dollar has rallied three big figures against the euro. Federal Reserve Regional Presidents have been stressing the threat of inflation, as economic confidence becomes more established. Interest rate futures are pricing in a quarter point hike in Fed funds between September and December 2013. This is a year ahead of the forecast made by the Federal Reserve. Ten year bond yields are above 2.0%, strengthening a base reached in September 2011. If, as we suspect, all the inflation risks are on the upside then it is very difficult to add to long bond positions at current levels. Our view is supported by the limited flight to quality in US bonds this week, even with the renewed panic in European debt markets.
The other part of the optimistic US outlook has been the strong performance by the major stock market indices. Since November 2011 equities have rallied sharply. While the market has traded sideways over the past three weeks in a jagged ranging pattern, losses have been limited. The S&P 500 is currently trading at the highest levels since 2008. This is a strong endorsement of the better economic outlook emerging in 2012.
The negative news has all been coming out of Europe. All asset classes in the euro bloc are back on a crisis footing. The need to reduce the Spanish budget deficit in line with EC pressure has seen massive austerity measures proposed. This medicine is proving difficult for investors to stomach as they believe it will be very hard for Spain to fund its deficit with such huge cuts in spending and increased taxes. Unlike Greece Spain is a not a minor player, it is the fourth largest economy in Europe. Spanish unemployment is above 20% and youth unemployment is 50%. The yield on Spanish bonds ballooned again this week as an auction of their bonds was barely covered. The cost of Spanish credit default swaps has also risen sharply. The calm following the deal on the Greece private sector debt has now passed and all investors exposed to Europe are looking for safe havens.
German bond yield have fallen rapidly and currency flows back in to the Swiss franc have pushed the market lower to test the 1.2000 SNB floor. Market sources claimed that the Swiss National Bank has 9 billion Swiss francs to sell at this level on Thursday, as authorities tried to limit the rise of the currency. Last year the entire intervention program is believed to have cost 17 billion Swiss francs.
So far this year the US economy created an additional 200,000 plus jobs, each month. Expectations are of a further 210,000 additional jobs in March, while the unemployment rate is due to remain unchanged at 8.3%. The market consensus is of an even higher jobs number than currently forecast after Thursday's 6000 fall in the weekly initial jobless claims. The weekly claims are now at the lowest level in four years.
Next week the market will look to a BOJ interest rate decision. No change is anticipated but comments will be watched closely for further reflation proposals. French CIP and US PPI are also on the calendar along with US CPI. Our bias is for stronger US data.
Thomson Reuters Global Equities Monthly Market Share Data Reports-March 2012 Activity
April 6, 2012--Trading is fragmenting between exchanges and competing venues. But by how much and which venues? Find out in the summarised monthly reports.
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: Gold Hits 3-mth Low as FOMC Dampens Stimulus Hopes, Spanish Yields Surge
April 6, 2012--Surprise gold slide after FOMC minutes.
This week's 2% decline in the price of gold to 3-month lows was surprising because the FOMC minutes that prompted the move pre-dated Fed Chairman
Bernanke's speech last week that indicated QE3 remained a
possibility.
While the post-FOMC USD strength has kept gold price under pressure, the re-emergence of Eurozone sovereign issues has historically been a supportive influence. Spanish bond yields reached
4-month highs, surging around 40bps, after weak demand for bond
auctions this week. Gold could receive support if Eurozone economic
data continues to disappoint next week, reinforcing the dire position
of 17-nation economy and the potential need for further bailouts for
peripheral countries.
USD strength sees platinum group metals slump, despite strong US car sales data. Platinum group metals (PGMs) dropped 3% after the USD strengthened following the release of the FOMC minutes. While the auto industry accounts for around 55% of global platinum and palladium demand, data showing that the US auto industry posted the best growth in monthly sales for almost 5 years did little to offset the negative market sentiment for PGMs. Auto sales jumped nearly 13% in the US in March according to Autodata Corp, an auto industry research company.
India’s finance minister schedules talks with striking jewellers amid import slump. Physical demand ahead of upcoming Indian festivals is likely to provide support to gold, but that cannot happen until the jeweller strike ends. So while the government officially sits to discuss the new excise proposals in early May, the expectation of festival buying in late April could force earlier concessions from both sides.
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ETF Global Insight-- Findings for ETFs/ETPs listed globally for Q1 2012
April 5, 2012--SUMMARY
At the end of Q1 2012, the global ETF industry had 3,187 ETFs, with 7,061 listings, assets of US$1,537.9 Bn, from 160 providers on 50 exchanges.
195 new ETFs were listed YTD to Q1 2012.
In March 2012, ETFs saw net inflows of US$15.0 Bn.
SPDR ETFs gathered the largest net inflows in March with US$5.1 Bn, followed by Vanguard with US$4.8 Bn and iShares with US$2.2 Bn net inflows.
Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows YTD with US$17.42 Bn, followed by iShares with US$17.40 Bn and SPDR ETFs with US$7.71 Bn net inflows.
Bank of New York experienced the largest net outflows in March with US$1.2 Bn.
Polaris experienced the largest net outflows YTD with US$1.0 Bn, followed by Commerzbank with US$0.7 Bn and Bank of New York with US$0.6 Bn net outflows.
S&P has the largest amount of ETF assets tracking its benchmarks, with US$359.5 Bn, followed by MSCI with US$356.6 Bn, and Barclays Capital with US$155.8 Bn.
Including other Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), at the end of Q1 2012, the global ETF/ETP industry had 4,547 ETFs/ETPs, with 9,137 listings, assets of US$1,728.9 Bn, from 194 providers on 54 exchanges.
242 new ETFs/ETPs were listed YTD to Q1 2012.
In March 2012, ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of US$15.7 Bn.
Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows in March with US$4.8 Bn, followed by SPDR ETFs with US$4.7 Bn and iShares with US$2.1 Bn net inflows.
iShares experienced the largest net inflows YTD with US$18.1 Bn, followed by Vanguard with US$17.4 Bn and SPDR ETFs with US$9.6 Bn net inflows.
Bank of New York experienced the largest net outflows in March with US$1.2 Bn.
Polaris experienced the largest net outflows YTD with US$1.0 Bn, followed by Commerzbank with US$0.7 Bn and Bank of New York with US$0.6 Bn net outflows.
S&P has the largest amount of ETF assets tracking its benchmarks, with US$369.5 Bn, followed by MSCI with US$357.3 Bn, and Barclays Capital with US$156.1 Bn..
World food prices keep on rising -UN
April 5, 2012--Global food prices rose in March for a third successive month, driven by gains in grains and vegetable oils, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday, putting food inflation firmly back on the economic agenda.
Food prices hit record highs in February 2011 and stoked protests connected to the Arab Spring wave of civil unrest in some north African and middle eastern countries. They then receded but started to grow again in January.
Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes March 2012 Performance Report
April 4, 2012--The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was down 4.14% for the month of March. The Dow Jones-UBS Single Commodity Indexes for soybean meal, soybean and cotton
had the strongest gains with month-returns of 10.14%, 6.29% and 3.41%, respectively.
The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were natural gas, orange juice and
coffee, which ended the month down 21.55%, 11.44%, and 10.23% respectively.
Year to date, the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is up 0.87% with the Dow Jones-UBS Soybean Meal Sub-Index posting the highest gain of 23.24% so far in 2012. Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas
Sub-Index has the most significant downside YTD performance, down 36.96%.
Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index Closed Up 1.19% In March-Index Measures Performance of 100 of World's Leading Shari'ah-Compliant Stocks
Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index, Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index End March In Negative Territory -Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50 Index Gained 2.61%
April 4, 2012--The Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index finished March up 1.19%, according to data compiled by Dow Jones Indexes. The index measures the performance of 100 of the world's leading Shari'ah-compliant stocks.
The Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index, which measures the world’s 50 largest companies, posted a March gain of 2.20%.
Regionally, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of 25 of the leading Shari’ah-compliant stocks in the Asia/Pacific region, decreased 0.94% in March; the Dow Jones Asian Titans 50 Index dropped 1.76%.
NYSE Euronext and Bloomberg New Energy Finance launch three additional clean energy indices
Indices for Solar, Wind and Energy Smart Technologies offer fresh ways for investors and ETF providers to get exposure to sectors of the rapidly-growing clean energy industry
April 4, 2012 - Today, NYSE Euronext and research company Bloomberg
New Energy Finance (BNEF) jointly launch three new sector-focused global clean energy stock
indices.
The new indices will allow investors to track in unprecedented detail the quoted companies most involved in the world’s historic shift to low-carbon energy.
The three new sector indices cover solar energy, wind power and energy smart technologies (EST). The solar index covers the entire value chain from polysilicon makers to photovoltaic project developers, the wind index everything from turbine component makers to wind farm builders and operators and the EST index everything from battery makers to suppliers of demand response systems for the electricity network. Each index is based on a basket of between 70 and 200 companies, quoted on different stock markets around the world, with a minimum threshold exposure to the relevant renewable energy or energy smart technology sectors.