Global ETF News Older than One Year
HSBC to launch regional, global emerging market ETFs
May 10, 2011--HSBC is planning to expand its offering of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the coming months, the bank's head of ETF said, pointing to emerging market products with a global and regional focus.
"We are still missing products on some very important indices (in this area)," Farley Thomas told Reuters on Monday, adding that HSBC planned to launch 5-8 new products with a focus on emerging markets by the end of the year.
So far, HSBC mostly offers ETFs on single emerging markets and Thomas said the bank was looking at products on Eastern Europe.
Source: Reuters
Words vs. Deeds: What Really Matters? -IMF Working paper
May 10, 2011--Summary: This paper revisits the link between the nominal exchange rate regime and inflation, based on a sample of 145 emerging market and developing countries (EMDCs) over the period 1980-2010. We contend that, just as a de jure peg that is not backed by a de facto peg will have little value, de facto pegs that lack the corresponding de jure will likewise reap few of the low inflation benefits associated with pegging the exchange rate.
To test our hypothesis, we exploit a novel dataset of both de jure and de facto exchange rate regime classifications. We find that pegged exchange rates are associated with significantly lower inflation in EMDCs than flexible exchange rates, and that this effect is much stronger for de facto pegs that are matched by de jure pegs than for those that are not. When it comes to anchoring expectations and delivering low inflation, therefore, both deeds and words matter.
view the IMF Working paper-Words vs. Deeds: What Really Matters?
Source: IMF
Identifying Vulnerabilities in Systemically-Important Financial Institutions in a Macro-financial Linkages Framework-IMF Working paper
May 10, 2011-Summary: This paper attempts to identify the indicators that can demonstrate the vulnerabilities in systemically important financial institutions. The paper finds that (i) indicators on leverage, liquidity, and business scope can help identify the differences between the intervened and non-intervened financial institutions during the subprime crisis;
(ii) the expected default frequencies react positively to shocks to leverage, inflation, global financial stress, and global excess liquidity, and negatively to return on assets and equity prices; and (iii) leverage has been the most robust factor with a long-run causal effect on the expected default frequencies.
Source: IMF
Nasdaq in offer to Paris over NYSE bid
May 10, 2011--Nasdaq OMX, the US exchange group, has offered to restore the name Paris Bourse to France's stock market, if it wins the battle for control of NYSE Euronext, current operator of the Paris exchange.
The disclosure, by Nasdaq chief executive Bob Greifeld, is the latest twist in an increasingly aggressive effort by Nasdaq and its partner IntercontinentalExchange to persuade NYSE shareholders of the merits of its counter-bid for NYSE Euronext.
Source: FT.com
Geithner hails ‘progress’ in China talks
May 10, 201--The US and China have claimed success after two days of negotiations ended in a series of deals on US access to the Chinese market and Chinese access to sensitive US technology.
China pledged on Tuesday to change regulations so that government contracts are not linked to improvements in its domestic technology base. China also promised improvements in the enforcement of intellectual property such as software.
Source: FT.com
FTSE Physical Industrial Metals Index Series to expand commodity investment opportunities
May 10, 2011--FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the award winning global index provider, and Dubai International Financial Centre Investments (DIFCI), through its wholly owned subsidiary Global Commodity Finance, together with Merit Commodity Partners AG, today announced the launch of the FTSE Physical Industrial Metals Index Series (PIMI).
This index series is the world’s first investible, Shariah compliant physical industrial metals index series, providing investors with a means of researching, benchmarking, and managing exposure to some of the world’s most widely used industrial metals.
The FTSE Physical Industrial Metals Index Series is launched against a backdrop of growing investor interest in the metals asset class as continued emerging market development and government investment in infrastructure fuels global consumption. The FTSE Physical Industrial Metals Index Series comprises four individual indices, covering aluminium, copper, zinc and nickel, as well as a benchmark index containing all four metals, giving investors the flexibility to tailor their metals exposure in accordance with investment objectives
Source: FTSE
NYSE Euronext Rejects Bid by Nasdaq and ICE
May 10, 2011--NYSE Euronext announced on Sunday that it would reject an unsolicited takeover bid by its rival, the Nasdaq OMX Group, and the IntercontinentalExchange, primarily over antitrust concerns.
Instead, the company, which runs the long-established New York Stock Exchange as well as the Euronext based in Paris, said it would stand by its previous agreement to merge with Deutsche Börse.
Source: NY Times
Policymakers learn a new and alarming catchphrase
May 9, 2011--Another week, another wave of dismal fiscal gridlock in Washington. But as US politicians squabble about how to cut the debt , another concept with a catchy name is quietly starting to creep into the policy debate: “financial repression”.
A few weeks ago, Carmen Reinhart, a US economist who shot to fame two years ago by co-authoring an influential book on sovereign debt, This Time Is Different, produced a joint paper for the International Monetary Fund on the topic of “financial repression” in the west. And while this phrase is not yet mainstream news, it is starting to generate a buzz among the policy elite in Washington and in some European capitals.
view the Liquidation of Public Debt paper
Source: FT.com
Investors move back into commodities
May 9, 2011--Investors are moving back into selective growth-focused assets as hopes for the US economy encourage buying of recently battered commodities.
Copper and oil, the global industrial benchmarks that endured heavy selling last week after fears of slowing demand triggered wholesale dumping of previously buoyant resources, are up 2 per cent to $4.05 a pound and 6 per cent to $103.05 a barrel, respectively.
Source: FT.com
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: Silver price rebounds as strong US jobs data boosts confidence
May 9, 2011--Silver price drop of 30% last week reverses on the back of stronger than expected US Payrolls on Friday, with follow through into the new week.
Other precious metals prices and flows have held relatively firm through the sell-off indicating investors' are not viewing this as the beginning of a broader commodity price downtrend.
Metals consultancy GFMS publishes forecast of $1800/oz average platinum spot price and $800/oz average palladium price over 2011.
Silver supported by strong US payrolls data after COMEX-led sell-off
Silver price falls fastest since at least 1975 as COMEX futures margin tightening prompts position liquidation. New regulations by the CME group have seen COMEX silver futures margin requirements raised five times over the past two weeks, increasing trading costs by 84%. The hikes caused a massive liquidation of long speculative positions in silver and sent the spot price plummeting from near $50/oz at the end of April towards $35/oz by the end of last week. However, with the release of stronger than expected payrolls numbers on Friday, the silver price rebounded with carry-through into this week.
Source: ETF Securities
