Global ETF News Older than One Year
China hackers breach US Chamber of Commerce
December 21, 2011--Hackers in China broke through the computer defences of the US Chamber of Commerce last year and were able to access information about its operations and its 3 million members, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The operation against the top American business lobbying group involved at least 300 internet addresses and was discovered and shut down in May 2010, the Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Source: FIN24
Consultative paper on revised "Core principles for effective banking supervision" issued by the Basel Committee
December 20, 2011--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today issued for public comment its revised Core principles for effective banking supervision.
The consultative paper updates the Committee's 2006 Core principles for effective banking supervision and the associated Core principles methodology, and merges the two documents into one. The Core Principles have also been re-ordered, highlighting the difference between what supervisors do themselves and what they expect banks to do: Principles 1 to 13 address supervisory powers, responsibilities and functions, focusing on effective risk-based supervision, and the need for early intervention and timely supervisory actions. Principles 14 to 29 cover supervisory expectations of banks, emphasising the importance of good corporate governance and risk management, as well as compliance with supervisory standards.
view the Core principles for effective banking supervision - consultative document
Source: BIS
ETFS US Precious Metals Weekly: Gold speculative futures investors de-lever as ETF investors position for price rebound
December 19, 2011--De-leveraging leaves COMEX gold and other precious metals’
speculative futures positioning at their lowest levels in 2 years.
Sustained deleveraging since September has left net speculative positions
in gold, as well as silver and palladium at their lowest levels in over two years, removing a key headwind to a price recovery heading into 2012.
COMEX speculative futures investors cut gold futures positions by 11% to
an 8 week low, in contrast to further accumulation by ETF investors
Gold spot price drops below its 200 day moving average, triggering further clearing of speculative long gold positions. The gold price dropped below the key technical 200 day moving average last week, triggering selling by quant funds and short-term traders. The gold price has been hit along with other commodity prices as the US dollar has surged against a Euro plagued by sovereign risk concerns and as investors have squared positions in the run-up to the end of a generally difficult year for investors.
Global gold ETP holdings hit a new high indicating longer-term investors view the recent gold price decline excessive. Global ETF investor positions have continued to trend up in both gold and silver, reflecting the fact that long term price supports such as negative real interest rates, currency debasement and sovereign/financial sector default risk, and rising emerging market/central bank demand remain embedded in the 2012 outlook. Global platinum and palladium ETF holdings have been pared back 10-30% from their peaks on slowing global growth indicators, though investors continue to sit on a majority of positions built since the credit crisis. Successive supply-chain bottlenecks in 2011 have obscured a tightening mine supply picture and emerging market-driven uptrend in autocatalyst demand for platinum and palladium in recent years, themes likely to resurface once developed economy debt concerns have finally been addressed.
visit www.etfsecurities.com for more info.
Source: ETF Securities
Oil rises above $94 a barrel in Europe amid signs of improving US economy
December 16, 2011--Oil prices rose above $94 a barrel Friday amid concerns about sanctions against major oil exporter Iran and signs the U.S. economy is slowly improving, which could boost demand for crude.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for January delivery was up 50 cents to $94.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.08 to settle at $93.87 on Thursday.
Source: Washington Post
Thomson Reuters Global Equities Monthly Market Share Data Reports-November 2011
December 15, 2011--Trading is fragmenting between exchanges and competing venues. But by how much and which venues? Find out in the summarised monthly reports.
Source: Thomson Reuters
Old Mutual shares jump on sale of Nordic arm for £2.1bn
Anglo-South African insurance group Old Mutual topped the blue-chip leaderboard on Thursday after agreeing to sell its Nordic division for £2.1bn.
December 15, 2011--Old Mutual, which has insurance, asset management and banking operations in more than 30 countries, will sell the business to Skandia Liv, a stand-alone entity within the group via a 'policyholder buy-out'.
Skandia Liv operates as a mutual insurer and will use some of its 300bnSKr (£27.7bn) in policyholder funds to buy the business, which has savings and banking operations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Following completion of the deal, it will sever all formal ties with Old Mutual.
Source: The Telegraph
Dow Jones Indexes Named ‘Best Islamic Index Provider’ BY Islamic Finance News For Fifth Consecutive Year
2011 Honour Marks the 27th Industry Award For Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Since its 1999 Launch
December 15, 2011--Dow Jones Indexes today announced it has been named 2011’s “Best Islamic Index Provider” by Islamic Finance News (IFN) – the fifth consecutive year in which the firm has captured the IFN award in recognition of its Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes.
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes’ latest honour – part of IFN’s annual “Best Service Providers” awards — is the fourth trophy the index family has claimed in 2011; earlier this year, Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes was named:
“Best Islamic Index Provider” by Islamic Business & Finance;
Source: Dow Jones Indexes
Volatility Expected to Continue in 2012;Key Risk to Improved Global Market Sentiment is Europe
December 15, 2011-- Russell Investments' team of global investment strategists have released the firm's 2012 Global Outlook in which they predict that global deleveraging will continue through 2012, noting that "it took three decades for the developed economies to borrow too much money and it will take years to pay it back."
Against this backdrop, however, Russell forecasts that investors can expect to see modest levels of recovery and growth overall, driven by Asia and the U.S.
“The global markets in 2011 have played out consistently with our expectations and as we look ahead to 2012 we anticipate continued volatility, especially as Western democracies reconcile the need for austerity with the need to support economic growth and provide for rising outlays on entitlements. However, we do expect to see more clarity around the impacts of the proposed solutions to this year’s headline-dominating policy issues globally,” said Pete Gunning, Russell’s global Chief Investment Officer.
The 2012 Annual Global Outlook points specifically to four themes that Russell believes will have the greatest impact on markets and asset returns in 2012:
1. Global deleveraging will continue to be the backdrop for economics, finance and politics for 2012. Balance sheet recessions are typically followed by elongated, grinding and below-trend recoveries. Lower standards of living, high unemployment, lower returns and higher volatility should all be expected.
view Russell Investments 2012 Global Outlook
Source: Russell
Bernanke tells lawmakers 'no euro bailout'
December 15, 2011--US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke told Republican lawmakers Wednesday that he cannot and will not bailout struggling European economies, senators at the meeting said.
Amid suspicions that Fed funds may be used to help debt-ridden eurozone countries, leading Republican Lindsay Graham said Bernanke assured senators "he doesn't have the intention or the authority to do that."
But Bernanke also warned President Barack Obama's foes in the Senate that if European leaders cannot solve the eurozone debt crisis, it would damage the US economy.
Source: EUbusiness
MSCI to Continue to Review the Classification of the MSCI UAE and MSCI Qatar Indices in 2012
December 14, 2011 – MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate
governance services, announced today that the MSCI UAE Index and the MSCI Qatar Index will maintain
their Frontier Market status and will remain under review for potential reclassification to Emerging
Markets as part of the 2012 Annual Market Classification Review.
As a reminder, MSCI extended the review period for the potential reclassification of the MSCI Qatar Index and the MSCI UAE Index from Frontier Market to Emerging Market status to December 2011, following the implementation of new delivery versus payment (“DVP”) models on the Qatar Exchange, Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in May 2011, in order to give additional time for market participants to assess the effectiveness of these models and for the regulators and the stock exchanges to address the remaining concerns raised by international institutional investors.
Regarding the UAE, the feedback received since June 2011 from international institutional investors was very positive on the introduction and seamless functioning of the new DVP model; however, investors continue to stress significant concerns over the effectiveness of this new framework to fully ensure the safeguarding of their assets under certain circumstances. This is in particular the case for failed trades where a forced sale of assets, without the owner’s consent, remains a possibility. As a result many international institutional investors and their custodians continue to view the use of a dual account structure as a requirement. The potential introduction of new regulations allowing for securities borrowing and lending (“SBL”) agreements and security short selling have been raised by market participants as a possible way of resolving these issues. The Emirati regulator (Securities and Commodities Authority ‐ SCA) has already published regulation drafts on these topics.
Source: MSCI
