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Middle East investors buy 17 percent of UK market Plus

September 28, 2009-London-based Plus Markets Group said Middle East investors had agreed to buy a 17.2 percent stake in the British exchange for 5 million pounds ($7.9 million). Amara Dhari Investment Ltd, a special-purpose vehicle representing Gulf investors, is to buy Plus shares at 7.5 pence, an 11.8 percent discount to Monday's close, Plus said in a statement.

Amara Dhari also secured a warrant to subscribe for a further 58 million shares at 5 pence each "upon the attainment of certain revenue performance targets". Plus, which generates revenue from listing fees and selling market data, on Monday reported a wider first-half pre-tax loss of 5.7 million pounds from 2.4 million pounds last year. Revenue was marginally down at 1.5 million pounds.

September 2009 Monthly Preliminary Performance Report Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes

September 28, 2009--The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was down -1.87% for the month of September. The Dow Jones-UBS Single Commodity Indexes for Natural Gas, Cocoa and Silver had the strongest gains with month-to-date returns of 23.76%, 10.34%, and 7.62%, respectively. The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were Sugar, Nickel and Wheat, which were down -11.60%, -11.57%, and -9.82% respectively, in September.

Year-to-date, the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is up 5.22% with the Dow Jones-UBS Lead Sub-Index posting the highest gain of 111.94% so far in 2009. Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Sub-Index has the most significant downside YTD performance, down -45.47%.

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Dow Jones STOXX 600 Factoids - September 25, 2009

September 25, 2009--As of September 25, 2009
Dow Jones STOXX 600, down 5.97 points this week, or -2.44%, to 238.95.
Worst week since the week ending Friday, July 10, 2009.
Today, Dow Jones STOXX 600, down 1.03 points, or -0.43%.
Down for two consecutive trading days.
Down 5.79 points, or -2.37%, over the last two trading days.


Largest two day point & percentage decline since Tuesday, September 01, 2009.
Down four of the past six trading days.
Lowest closing value since Tuesday, September 08, 2009.
Off -41.07% from its record closing high of 405.50, hit on Monday, March 06, 2000.
Off -10.14% from 52 weeks ago.
Off -2.91% from its 2009 closing high of 246.10, hit on Thursday, September 17, 2009.
Up 51.26% from its 2009 closing low of 157.97, hit on Monday, March 09, 2009.
Month-to-date, Dow Jones STOXX 600, up 1.25%.
Year-to-date, Dow Jones STOXX 600, up 21.36%.

SIFMA Responds to G-20 Initiatives on Exec Comp and Other Reforms' Impact

September 25, 2009--The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today responded to some of the initiatives launched by the G-20 this week, including barriers to global markets, executive compensation, over-the-counter derivatives (OTC derivatives) and the aggregate impact of these reform measures. Tim Ryan, president and CEO of SIFMA, made the following statements:

Aggregate impact of reform measures:

“International standard setters have unveiled an unprecedented level and range of regulatory and legislative initiatives. Before this list of new requirements is implemented, it is critical that we understand their aggregate impact on global economic growth. While individually each initiative may have merit – and the industry supports many reforms – taken together, these reforms could negatively impact investors, capital flows, and economic growth and job creation during a period of global economic vulnerability.”

Global markets:

“Open markets and the free flow of capital and goods are the cornerstones of our global markets. As such, it remains vital to seek a well-balanced and well-coordinated regulatory framework, including a globally agreed upon set of common accounting standards underpinning those initiatives. G20 nations must guard against the potential for the promulgation and implementation of reforms that can result in the type of regulation that the G20 committed to avoid – measures that create barriers to market entry, distort competition, and encourage regulatory arbitrage.”

Trade “We also support the Leaders’ call for a successful conclusion to the Doha Round in 2010, with a robust market opening package for financial services.”

Compensation:

“A responsible approach to executive compensation is crucial to restoring trust and confidence in the financial system. Since the crisis, the industry has set new guidelines that support long-term performance and effective risk management. The G-20’s proposals linking compensation to performance and risk, making compensation policies transparent and ensuring compensation committee independence are in line with those guidelines. Boards and compensation committees are reassessing their approaches to compensation to ensure that compensation levels are tied to performance and that compensation policies are aligned with the long-term interests of shareholders.”

OTC Derivatives:

“We support reform of the OTC derivatives markets to bring more transparency and accountability, while ensuring that these vital economic tools remain accessible for firms to manage their risks.“

Speech of Chairman Gary Gensler, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, OTC Derivatives Regulation, European Commission

September 25, 2009--Good morning. It is a pleasure to be in Brussels with you today. Thank you to the European Commission for hosting this important conference. Thank you Commissioner Charlie McCreevy and David Wright for inviting me to speak today.

One year ago, the financial system failed. The financial regulatory system failed. We must now do all we can to ensure that it does not happen again. While a year has passed and the system appears to have stabilized, we cannot relent in our mission to vigorously address weaknesses and gaps in the global financial regulatory system. As a critical component of reform, I believe that we must bring comprehensive regulation to the OTC derivatives markets. We must lower risk, promote greater market integrity and improve market transparency.

We have all felt the effects of the failures of our regulatory system. Every U.S. taxpayer, for example, put money into a company that most Americans had never even heard of. $180 billion of those tax dollars went into AIG to keep its collapse from further harming the broader global economy. AIG, though a U.S.-based company, highlights how interconnected the global financial system has become. As the world came to discover, AIG had a large book of business – approximately $450 billion net notional value – of credit default swaps. About two thirds of that business was written to support regulatory capital of major banks, primarily right here in Europe. The other third of the business was written largely on mortgage securitization products. When the U.S. government first put money into AIG last year, about two thirds of the first approximately $90 billion flowed through AIG to its counterparties outside of the United States. AIG demonstrates the interconnectivity of the global financial markets and the need for all financial regulators to work together on a global solution.

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ECB publishes the Euro Money Market Survey 2009

September 24, 2009--Today the European Central Bank (ECB) is publishing a report entitled “Euro Money Market Survey 2009”, which illustrates the main developments in the euro money market in the second quarter of 2009, in comparison with the second quarter of 2008.

The main results for the constant panel of 105 banks show the following.

Aggregate turnover in the euro money market decreased for a second consecutive year, falling by 5%. The most notable decrease in activity took place in the unsecured market, where turnover contracted by 25%.

The decline in the unsecured market was more severe for the longer maturities as turnover contracted by 44% for maturities from three months to one year. From the respondents’ point of view, liquidity conditions and efficiency in the unsecured market also continued to deteriorate.

The secured market showed resilience (with turnover increasing by 5%) following last year’s decline and remained the largest segment of the euro money market. Overnight activity in this market segment continued to increase this year, accounting for 27% of secured trades, the largest share since 2003.

For the first time, the 2009 survey compiled data on activity in the secured market cleared through central counterparties (as a subset of the bilateral repo market), which represented 39% of total secured market turnover.

Activity in the derivatives market was also affected, showing a decline of 2%, mostly on account of overnight index swaps (OISs) and other interest rate swaps excluding OISs (“Other IRSs”). Turnover in forward rate agreements (FRAs) and cross-currency swaps continued to increase this year. As a result, the FRA segment’s share of euro money market turnover reached 11%, whereas cross-currency swaps accounted for only 0.5%.

Looking at concentration among market participants, the market share of the top 20 banks tended to increase in most euro money market segments. The unsecured market remained the least concentrated segment, followed by the OIS and secured market segments.

The share of electronic trading declined in the unsecured and secured market segments, mostly reflecting an increase in direct trading between counterparties. The other segments recorded an increase in the share of electronic trading, albeit to varying degrees.

The share of trading between counterparties from the same country increased slightly in the unsecured and secured markets, whereas in most derivatives segments the share of transactions with non-euro area counterparties increased significantly.

The qualitative part of the study shows that, in most market segments, with the exception of the unsecured market, the majority of respondents reported some stabilisation and even some improvement in market liquidity conditions following the unprecedented deterioration recorded in the second quarter of 2008. However, a significant number of respondents continued to report a further deterioration in all segments of the euro money market also in the second quarter of 2009.

The Euro Money Market Survey, which refers to the second quarter of each year, has been conducted since 1999 on an annual basis by experts from the European System of Central Banks, i.e. the ECB and the national central banks of the European Union. Although the survey is carried out and its results are published every year, the ECB only publishes a complete study based on the survey data every second year. The last complete study, entitled “Euro Money Market Study 2008”, was published on 2 February 2009. Today’s report consists of a set of charts presenting the data from the 2009 survey with no explanatory text.

The “Euro Money Market Survey 2009” and a summarised version of the aggregate survey data (CSV file) can be downloaded from the ECB’s website. The full dataset is available in the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse. The next survey and the complete study will be published in 2010.

view report-SEPTEMBER 2009-EURO MONEY MARKET SURVEY

ECB and other central banks decide to continue conducting US dollar liquidity-providing operations

September 24, 2009--The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has decided, in agreement with other central banks including the Federal Reserve, to continue conducting US dollar liquidity-providing operations from October 2009 to January 2010.

These Eurosystem operations will continue to take the form of seven-day repurchase operations against ECB-eligible collateral and to be carried out as fixed rate tenders with full allotment. Given the limited demand and the improved conditions in funding markets, the US dollar operations with a term of 84 days will be discontinued following the operation to be held on 6 October 2009 and maturing on 7 January 2010. The 84-day operations, as well as the other US dollar liquidity-providing operations that were previously discontinued, could be started again in the future if needed.

A similar decision has been taken by the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank.

The consolidated calendar for euro, US dollar and Swiss franc operations of the Eurosystem is available on the ECB’s website.

Information on related announcements by other central banks is available on the following websites:

Federal Reserve: -http://www.federalreserve.gov
Bank of England: -http://www.bankofengland.co.uk
Bank of Japan: http://www.boj.or.jp/en
Swiss National Bank: http://www.snb.ch

September 2009 “Market’s Measure” - Preliminary Report - A Monthly Report From Dow Jones Indexes And STOXX Ltd. On The Performance Of - U.S., European, Asia And Other Global Stock Market Indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average Posts 2.66% Gain in SEPTEMBER, European Stocks Gain 3.13%, Asia Rises 4.92% and World Equities Rise by 4.40%

Basic Materials Sector Posts Biggest Gain for September in U.S.

Health Care Sector Post the Narrowest Gain for September in U.S.

September 24, 2009--As of September 23, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.66% in September, closing at 9748.55. Stock market indexes in Europe, Asia and globally were up in September, according to preliminary monthly figures from global index providers, Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Ltd.