Global ETF News Older than One Year
e-Atlas of Global Development Launched by World Bank Easy Mapping with New Data Visualization Tool
April 4, 2011--The World Bank today launched the e-Atlas of Global Development, a free, online, interactive tool, which maps and graphs more than 175 indicators from the World Bank’s development database. The launch coincides with the release of a new print edition of the Atlas of Global Development, a concise and up-to-date reference for journalists, teachers, students, and anyone interested in better understanding today’s critical development issues.
Developed in collaboration with HarperCollins, the e-Atlas of Global Development allows users to easily and quickly map and chart economic and social indicators and compare country outcomes. Users can export customized, professional quality, full color maps and graphs. Other features include scalable maps, timeline graphing, ranking tables, and import and export functions for sharing data and graphics. Critical issues such as poverty, food production, population growth, climate change, international trade, and foreign direct investment are covered. The e-atlas can be found at data.worldbank.org/atlas-global.
“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to display and disseminate our data”, said Carlos Rossel, Publisher at the World Bank. “Our atlases are evolving with the times and with the changing needs of our users. This new e-Atlas is a powerful visualization tool for anyone interested in learning more about the state of our world”
Source: World Bank
OCC Announces 19% Increase in Cleared Contracts for Record Volume Month in March
April 1, 2011--OCC announced today that total volume reached 421,466,054 contracts in March, representing a 19 percent increase over the March 2010 volume of 353,294,816 contracts. This marks a new record month and quarter for OCC cleared volume and is the second time total cleared volume surpassed 400 million contracts in one month. OCC ended the first quarter with total volume reaching 1,160,299,965 contracts, up 25 percent from 2010.
Options: Exchange-listed options trading increased 19 percent over March 2010 with 417,188,575 contracts and set a monthly trading record 3 percent higher than the previous record set in May 2010. Index options trading rose 13 percent from the previous March. The highest volume day for the month was recorded on March 17 when 28,603,262 contracts changed hands. Two of the top ten highest volume days occurred during the month.
Source: OCC
Reconsidering the Role of Food Prices in Inflation -IMF Working Paper
April 1, 2011--Food prices are generally excluded from measures of inflation most closely watched by policymakers due either to their transitory nature or their higher volatility. However, in lower income countries, food price inflation is not only more volatile but also on average higher than nonfood inflation. Food inflation is also in many cases more persistent than nonfood inflation, and shocks in many countries are propagated strongly into nonfood inflation.
Under these conditions, and particularly given high global commodity price inflation in recent years, a policy focus on measures of core inflation that exclude food prices can misspecify inflation, leading to higher inflationary expectations, a downward bias to forecasts of future inflation and lags in policy responses. In constructing measures of core inflation, policymakers should therefore not assume that excluding food price inflation will provide a clearer picture of underlying inflation trends than headline inflation.
view the IMF working paper-Reconsidering the Role of Food Prices in Inflation-IMF Working paper
Source: IMF
BlackRock * New Report * ETF Landscape: Industry Review - February 2011
March 31, 2011--At the end of February 2011, the global ETF industry had 2,557 ETFs with 5,802 listings and assets of US$1,367.4 Bn from 140 providers on 48 exchanges around the world. This compared to 2,091 ETFs with 3,998 listings and assets of US$1,001.9 Bn from 115 providers on 40 exchanges at the end of February 2010.
Additionally, there were 1,092 other ETPs with 1,808 listings and assets of US$175.3 Bn from 57 providers on 23 exchanges. This compared to 630 ETPs with 921 listings and assets of US$150.3 Bn from 40 providers on 18 exchanges at the end of February 2010.
Combined, there were 3,649 products with 7,610 listings, assets of US$1,542.7 Bn from 174 providers on 52 exchanges around the world, as at the end of February 2011. This compared to 2,721 products with 4,919 listings, assets of US$1,152.2 Bn from 139 providers on 43 exchanges at the end of February 2010.
Source: Global ETF Research & Implementation Strategy Team, BlackRock
Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER)
March 31, 2011-The COFER database
COFER is an IMF database that keeps end-of-period quarterly data on the currency composition of official foreign exchange reserves. The currencies identified in COFER are:
U.S. dollar,
Euro,
Pound sterling
Japanese yen,
Swiss francs, and
Other currencies.
Source: IMF
FTSE Group Extends Access To Alternative Asset Classes With The Launch Of The FTSE Infrastructure Index Series
March 31, 2011--: FTSE Group (“FTSE”), the award winning global index provider, today announces the launch of the FTSE Infrastructure Index Series (FIIS); a comprehensive and complementary set of nine indices diversified across six infrastructure sub-sectors, to reflect the market’s evolving definition of infrastructure.
The FIIS enables investors to research, benchmark and gain exposure to both physical infrastructure assets and the important networks, support and conveyance services that underpin global infrastructure development.
The new index series provides investors with balanced exposure to global infrastructure whilst reducing the risk of over-concentration in individual sectors. Both core infrastructure (companies that derive over 65% of their revenue from infrastructure) and infrastructure related opportunities (companies that derive over 20% of their revenue from infrastructure) are incorporated in the index series, offering investors the flexibility to tailor exposure in accordance with investment objectives and risk appetites.
Source: FTSE
Implications of the Japanese nuclear disaster: An ESG research perspective
March 31, 2011--Along with its tragic human and environmental toll, the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan could also curtail a much-anticipated global “nuclear renaissance.”
The United States, with 104 operating reactors and the most nuclear capacity, and Europe, with 143 reactors in 27 countries, now plan extensive reviews of their nuclear plants and disaster preparedness. China, with 11 operating reactors, has also suspended approval of more than two dozen planned reactors.
This may give a boost to competing low-carbon generating sources, such as natural gas and renewable energy. MSCI’s Global Alternative Energy Index recorded a 10.1 percent gain in the first 10 days after Japan’s nuclear crisis began.
Source: Responsible Investor
Index giant, Vanguard, leads SRI fund sales at year start
March 31, 2011--Vanguard, the US index fund giant, leapt to become the biggest seller of European SRI retail funds during the first month of 2011 in a tough month for the sector as a whole, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group.
The sector for ‘RI screened’ funds, as they are labelled by Lipper FMI, which have undergone an ‘extra-financial’ ESG (environment, social and governance) screen in their stock selection process, was hit by total losses of €742m in January, compared with inflows of €623.8m in December, 2010. The best selling RI Screened fund for the month was Vanguard’s SRI European Stock fund, which netted €225.4m.
Source: Responsible Investor
ETFS Inaugural Precious Metals Weekly: Gold/Silver Ratio Hits 27 Year Low
March 30, 2011-Gold/Silver Ratio Hits 27Year Low
Spreading unrest in the Middle East and growing sovereign debt
concerns in Europe push gold price to new all time high of $1,447/oz.
Silver price hits 31-year high as its store of value characteristics and
links to the global manufacturing cycle push demand and prices higher.
Gold/Silver ratio falls to lowest level since September 1983.
Platinum group metals steady after post-Japan Earthquake correction as
investors’ look through near-term supply-chain disruptions.
Gold hit an all-time high of $1,447/oz late last week.
Spreading Middle East and North Africa (MENA) unrest has increased concerns about worst case scenarios and the impact higher oil prices may have on inflation and growth, driving up demand for risk and inflation hedges. European debt concerns are also on the rise, with Portuguese bond yields reaching Euro-era highs as Prime Minister Socrates resigned on the back of opposition to his government's proposed fiscal tightening measures. German Chancellor Merkel's loss of key regional elections over the weekend has reduced her government's ability to support programs to ease the pain of Europe's more fiscally-challenged countries, potentially raising structural risks to the Euro. Global gold exchange traded products (ETPs) have seen 1.2mn oz ($3.9bn) of inflows over the past month, recouping approximately 25% of outflows seen over the first six weeks of 2011.
Source: ETFS Securities
US Money Fund Exposure to European Banks
This report updates Fitch Ratings’ prior research on this topic (see December 2010 study, “U.S. Money Market Funds: Recent Trends in Exposure to European Banks”) as of end-February 2011 and focuses on MMF exposures to banks’ certificates of deposit (CDs), commercial paper (CP), asset-backed CP (ABCP), and, new for this report, repurchase agreements (repos).
Source: Fitch Ratings
March 30, 2011--Market sentiment on European sovereigns that have experienced heightened investor concern
continues to affect the perceived credit risk of financial institutions in those countries. An important funding channel for European financial institutions and, therefore, a potential channel for eurozone sovereign risk, is U.S. prime money market funds (MMFs), which continue to have sizable exposures to European financial institutions.
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