Global ETF News Older than One Year
EU probes takeover bid to create biggest stock market
August 4, 2011--European Union anti-trust officials Thursday launched a probe into takeover plans aiming to create the world's biggest stock exchange.
The European Commission said it opened an in-depth investigation into the deal to stitch together Frankfurt's Deutsche Boerse AG and New York's NYSE Euronext Inc., warning of concerns particularly over control of high-risk derivatives trading.
The commission said an initial probe announced on June 29 "indicated competition concerns in a number of areas, in particular in the field of derivatives trading and clearing."
Source: EUbusiness
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes July 2011 Performance Report
August 3, 2011--The global Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index, which measures the performance of 100 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks globally, dropped 0.95% in July, closing at 2327.64. In comparison, the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index, which measures the 50 biggest companies worldwide, posted a loss of 0.28%, closing at 183.09.
− 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, increased 1.16%, closing at 2194.65. The Dow Jones Asian Titans 50 Index, in comparison, posted a gain of 0.16%, closing at 138.28.
Measuring Europe, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of the 25 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks in Europe, closed at 2288.46, a loss of 1.72%, while the conventional Dow Jones Europe Index loss 3.57%, closing at 278.79.
Source: Mondovisione
Gold hits highs on US growth worries
August 3, 2011--Gold prices have hit a nominal high for the second day running as investors pile into the precious metal amid worries about the global economy.
Spot bullion in London on Wednesday reached a record of $1,672.65 a troy ounce, up 0.8 per cent on the day, after a report released on Tuesday showed that US consumers cut back on spending in June for the first time since September 2009.
Source: FT.com
Banks in BRICs Signaling Credit Crisis With Loans Showing Increasing Risks
August 2, 2011--Banks in the biggest emerging markets are losing the confidence of investors as loans turn sour after a two-year credit binge.
Brazil’s financial shares have lost more this year than counterparts in crisis-stricken Europe as consumer defaults hit a 12-month high in June and borrowing costs climbed to 46 percent. Bank stocks in China are trading at lower valuations than global emerging-market indexes for the first time since 2006. The country faces a financial crisis with bad debt that may jump to 30 percent of total loans, Fitch Ratings said.
Source: Bloomberg
Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes - July 2011 Performance Report
August 2, 2011--The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was up 2.96% for the month of July. The Dow Jones-UBS Single Commodity Indexes for silver, sugar and wheat had the strongest gains with month-to-date returns of 15.14%, 13.17% and 9.48%, respectively.
The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were cotton, coffee and natural gas, which were down 14.18%, 9.81% and 5.65% respectively, in July.
Year to date, the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is up 0.26% with the Dow Jones-UBS Silver Sub-Index posting the highest gain of 29.37% so far in 2011. Dow Jones-UBS Wheat Sub-Index has the most significant downside YTD performance, down 25.56%.
Source: Mondovisione
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: Gold price hits record high on US growth, debt downgrade worries despite US debt deal
August 2, 2011--Gold spot price hits record high above $1640/oz as US growth and debt downgrade fears offset news of debt compromise. Weak US GDP data and a
drop in the July manufacturing ISM highlight the fragility of the US recovery, and the potential need for a third round of quantitative easing later this year. S&P have
highlighted that $4tr of cuts are necessary to stabilize US debt, well above the $2.4tr in the government compromise, indicating continued risk of the US losing its AAA rating.
Exchange traded product (ETP) gold holdings hit new high, speculative gold futures longs highest in 9 months. Global gold ETP holdings hit 2,150 tons ($113bn) last week according to Bloomberg. This rebound in interest has been accompanied by a 39% rise COMEX speculative futures positioning in July – to the highest level in 9 months. COMEX silver, platinum and palladium speculative futures holdings are also up between 30% and 48%over the past month.
Platinum, palladium prices up on South Africa mining labour disruptions and rising nationalisation fears. Palladium prices have seen the second strongest price gains behind silver over the past month as industrial action in South Africa threatens to exacerbate the market supply deficit in 2011. A market risk report released last week also highlighted rising risk of South African mine nationalization.
Gold price rallies to record level as weak US growth and continued debt downgrade concerns offset the risk-positive news a compromise has been reached to raise the US debt ceiling.
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Source: Source: ETFS Securities
OIC Announces Options Trading Volume Increased 26% In July
August 1, 2011--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that total options trading volume for July was 348,218,171 contracts, up 25.54 percent from July 2010 volume of 277,370,315 contracts.
Average daily trading volume in July was 17,410,909 contracts, 31.82 percent higher than average daily volume in July 2010. Furthermore, year-to-date volume stood at 2,565,767,148 contracts at the end of July, 12.62 percent higher than the same point last year when 2,278,247,433 contracts were traded. Average daily trading volume for 2011 was 17,694,946 contracts, up 12.62 percent over the 15,712,051 contracts traded in the same period last year.
OIC also reported that equity options volume (options on individual stocks and ETFs) in July came in at 320,787,641 contracts, up 24.80 percent compared to the same period last year. Daily equity options volume had an average of 16,039,382 contracts per day in July, which is 31.03 percent higher than the year-ago level of 12,240,994. Year-to-date equity options volume was 2,386,558,555 contracts, which is 13.64 percent higher than the same point last year when 2,100,073,623 contracts were traded.
Source: OIC
Fears rise as global output stalls
August 1, 2011--The recovery in global manufacturing is running out of steam, a series of indicators showed on Monday, raising fears that there is little momentum left in the world economy.
Across Asia, Europe and in the US, purchasing managers reported activity in the manufacturing sector in July growing at its most feeble rate since countries clawed their way out of recession in 2009, while new orders appeared to be contracting and the growth of employment was also slowing.
Source: FT.com
Dollar hits all-time low against Swiss franc
August 1, 2011--The dollar and euro fell to a fresh record low against the Swiss franc on Monday, spooked by the prospect of a U.S. credit rating downgrade.
The dollar fell as low as 0.78020 franc currencies/quote?srcCurr=CHF&destCurr=USD">CHF=EBS on trading platform EBS, while the euro dropped to 1.11990 francs EURCHF=EBS. Traders said investors took out options barrier at the 1.1250 level.
Source: FT.com
Traders cautious on exchanges tie-up
July 31, 2011--Some of the largest electronic trading companies have given a qualified welcome to the proposed combination of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext, warning that while it could “create market efficiencies” regulators had to “mitigate its increased market power”.
Their response to the deal, which would create the world’s largest exchange by market capitalisation and number of company listings, highlights divisions among market participants over the merits of the combination.
Source: FT.com
