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NASDAQ OMX Announces First Quarter 2010 Results
Non-GAAP Diluted EPS $0.43 (GAAP Diluted EPS $0.28)
April 30, 2010--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. ("NASDAQ OMX®") (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today reported net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX of $61 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2010 compared with net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX of $43 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009, and net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX of $94 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009.
Included in first quarter of 2010 results are:
* $40 million in charges related to the recognition of unamortized debt issuance costs associated with a credit facility refinanced in the first quarter of 2010, and costs to terminate an associated interest rate swap; and
* $7 million in asset retirements and other non-recurring expenses.
Excluding the above items, net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX calculated on a non-GAAP basis was $92 million for the first quarter of 2010, compared with non-GAAP net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX of $99 million for the fourth quarter of 2009 and $102 million for the first quarter of 2009. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per common share were $0.43 for the first quarter of 2010 compared with non-GAAP diluted earnings per common share of $0.46 for the fourth quarter of 2009 and $0.48 for the first quarter of 2009.
"During the quarter we remained focused on executing our plan to leverage our world class technology platform while diversifying our product offering," commented Bob Greifeld, NASDAQ OMX's Chief Executive Officer. "With the launch of INET in the Nordics, positive developments in our interest rate swaps clearing business, and expansion of our efforts within energy commodities, the breadth of our business has grown substantially, placing NASDAQ OMX in a favorable position to capitalize on changes within our industry."
First Quarter 2010 Business Highlights
* Announced the approval of a share repurchase program, authorizing NASDAQ OMX to repurchase in the aggregate up to $300 million of its outstanding common stock. During the first quarter of 2010, NASDAQ OMX repurchased 2.3 million shares of common stock with an aggregate principal value of $46 million.
BlackRock Joins Blackstone in Loan Fund Frenzy: Credit Markets
April 29, 2010--BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, and Blackstone Group LP’s GSO Capital Partners LP are forming mutual funds to invest
in loans as the London interbank offered rate rises to the highest level since August.
Within the past two months, the firms have joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in announcing funds that invest in leveraged loans pegged to short-term interest rates.
Investors poured more than $2.5 billion into bank loan mutual-funds in March and the first three weeks of April, more than triple the amount for March and April last
year, according to Lipper FMI data.
The Federal Reserve will likely raise its target rate for overnight loans between banks to 0.75 percent by the end of this year, up from 0.25 percent, according to the median estimate of 67 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index has returned 5.68 percent this year, building on last year’s record 52 percent as lending continues to open up. New money “will provide financing, which will help” merger and acquisition deals get done, according to Invesco Ltd.’s Tom Ewald.
The Istanbul Stock Exchange and Takasbank sign MoU with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange
April 28, 2010--The 3rd Working Committee meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Member States’ Stock Exchanges Forum, initiated in 2005 with a decision taken in line with the request made by the OIC for launching a framework of cooperation among the OIC stock exchanges, is held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on April 27-28, 2010. The event is dedicated this year to discuss the Islamic financial instruments tradable on exchanges, the creation of OIC indexes and awareness and investor education about Islamic financial markets.
The representatives of International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) contributed to the meeting with their presentations. In addition, the representatives of FTSE, MSCI Barra & Standard and Poor's participated to the meeting.
Huge investor coalition demands bribery policy clarity from 21 major companies
Defence and construction sectors under particular focus.
April 28, 2010--A coalition of 20 pension fund investors and fund managers with assets of $1.7 trillion – all signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment – is pressuring major companies, notably in the defence and construction sectors, to reveal their management policies on bribery and corruption. The campaign follows a slew of recent cases involving large multinationals and alleged kickbacks.
Last week, BHP Billiton, the Australian mining group, announced it was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over possible violations of anti-corruption laws involving interactions with government officials. The company said it was co-operating with the investigation. The investor campaign said it had contacted 21 major companies in the defence, construction and other sectors in 14 countries to reveal the measures they have in place to avoid bribery and corruption in business with their suppliers.
Oil benchmarks gap widens to more than $3
April 27, 2010--The gap between the price of the main US and European oil benchmarks reached its widest level since August on Tuesday.
Nymex June West Texas Intermediate fell $2 to $82.20 a barrel while ICE June Brent, the North Sea benchmark, fell $1.23 to $85.60. This left the spread between the two above $3 a barrel.
Carbon permit trading buoyed by threat of supply constraints
April 27, 2010--Carbon permits have been trading at a near seven-month high, strengthened by rising power prices and rumblings that the European Commission may move to tighten supply.
Permit prices wobbled slightly on Tuesday, however, giving up some of the gains they had made over the past few days as Germany auctioned some of its stock.
But they remain at a higher level than in the past few months. The permits were trading at €15.46 on Tuesday after Germany sold 300,000 of them at €15.30 each.
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Newsletter - April 2010
April 27, 2010--Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Newsletter - April 2010 is now available.
ROBUST MARKET FUNDAMENTALS ENSURE GOLD PRICE REMAINS RESILIENT IN FIRST QUARTER 2010
April 27, 2010-Robust market fundamentals, including evidence of both
stronger jewellery demand in India, growth in Chinese jewellery demand and sustained investor
inflows, continued to support gold price performance during the first three months of 2010, according
to the World Gold Council’s (WGC) latest Gold Investment Digest.
The report, which was published today, showed:
• The gold price rose modestly during Q1 2010, ending the quarter at US$1,115.50/oz, on
the London PM fix, compared with US$1,087.50/oz at the end of Q4 2009, as evidence
of seasonally strong jewellery demand in India and China combined with continued
global investment flows, provided a robust fundamental support to the gold price.
• On a risk-adjusted basis, gold outperformed compared with the broader commodity
complex and international equities, but slightly underperformed against US and emerging
market equities in the first quarter of 2010.
• Gold remained, on average, the least volatile of the commodities monitored by WGC1,
with the exception of the S&P GS Livestock Index, with annualised average volatility
falling to 17.6% from 20.0% in the previous quarter. By the end of Q1 2010, price
volatility fell further to 14.8% on a 22-day rolling basis, below its historical average.
April 2010 Monthly Preliminary Performance Report Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes
April 26, 2010--The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was up 2.95% for the month of April. The Dow Jones-UBS Single Commodity Indexes for Wheat, Natural Gas and Nickel had the strongest gains with month-to-date returns of 9.20%, 8.93%, and 8.06%, respectively. The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were Sugar, Coffee and Copper, which were down -6.74%, -4.32%, and -1.18% respectively, in April.
Year to date, the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is down -2.25% with the Dow Jones-UBS Nickel Sub-Index posting the highest gain of 45.37% so far in 2010. Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Sub-Index has the most significant downside YTD performance, down -40.90%.
BlackRock clients move to passive funds, shares fall
April 26, 2010--BlackRock Inc, the giant money management firm, reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings as its funds businesses saw outflows and customers shifted to passive funds over more actively-managed ones
The asset management firm's shares were down as much as 8.8 percent as investors focused on the weaker-than-expected earnings as well as weaker-than-forecast revenue numbers even as overall profits more than quadrupled with the addition of Barclays' former exchange-traded funds business.
