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Van Eck Global Renames ETF to Market Vectors® Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF
January 5, 2011--Van Eck Global has changed the name of its nuclear energy exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new name, Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF, was selected to communicate to investors the relative weight of the uranium mining sub-sector among the seven nuclear energy sub-sectors represented in the DAXglobal® Nuclear Energy Index (the “Index”). The Fund’s ticker symbol, NLR, remains unchanged.
Launched in August 2007, NLR seeks to replicate, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Index. In addition to companies engaged in uranium mining, the Fund offers exposure to companies involved with uranium enrichment, uranium storage, equipment for nuclear energy generation, nuclear plant infrastructure, nuclear fuel transportation and nuclear energy generation. Uranium mining is the largest of these seven sectors, accounting for approximately 39% of NLR’s total market capitalization as of December 31, 2010. The balance of the Fund is diversified across the remaining six nuclear energy sub-sectors.
As of December 31, 2010, NLR had assets of $260MM, making it the largest nuclear energy ETF available to investors. Its gross expense ratio is 0.66 percent; its net expense ratio 0.62 percent.
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Source: Van Eck Global
WisdomTree Launches Industry’s First Managed Futures Strategy ETF
WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy Fund (WDTI) Provides Exposure to Commodities, Currencies and Interest Rates through Long/Short Quantitative Strategy
Established strategy now available in ETF structure, another Industry first from WisdomTree
January 5, 2011--WisdomTree (Pink Sheets: WSDT), an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) sponsor and asset manager, announced today the launch of the WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy Fund (WDTI). WDTI is an actively managed ETF which employs a quantitative, rules-based strategy designed to provide returns that correspond to the performance of the Diversified Trends IndicatorTM. WDTI is listed on the NYSE Arca with an expense ratio of 0.95%.
WisdomTree President & COO Bruce Lavine commented, “WisdomTree is very excited to bring the first managed futures strategy ETF to the marketplace. Managed futures has been an increasingly important asset class as investors look for less correlated assets that can profit in many different market environments. We believe WisdomTree is adding substantial investor benefits by utilizing the ETF structure which provides full transparency of holdings, liquidity and relatively low cost – without the various limitations generally associated with traditional product structures such as sales loads, minimum investments and K-1 statements*.” (Ordinary brokerage commissions apply.)
The Diversified Trends Indicator or the DTI Index is a long/short rules-based, managed futures strategy developed by Alpha Financial Technologies (AFT) and its founder, Victor Sperandeo (“Trader Vic”). The DTI Index began live calculation in 2004 and incorporates a diversified group of 24 liquid components of exchange-traded commodity and financial futures contracts. WisdomTree’s new ETF, WDTI, is designed to provide returns that correspond to the performance of the DTI Index. WDTI seeks to provide:
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Source: WisdomTree
ELX Sets New Volume Record in US Treasury Futures with Over 100,000 Total Contracts Traded
January 5, 2011--ELX Futures, L.P. (ELX), a leading electronic futures exchange, announced today that it has established a new single-day total volume record for U.S. Treasury futures contracts with over 100K contracts traded on January 5, 2011.
The 30-year Treasury bond also set a new record with over 21K contracts traded. ELX’s end-of-day electronic market share exceeded 12% in the two-year Treasury futures contract and 5.5% in the 30-year Treasury bond. Overall market share was 4% at the end of the trading day.
These new records follow a solid 2010 year-end performance that showed a 14% jump in average daily volume (ADV) in U.S. Treasury futures contracts year-over-year and several record-breaking milestones in ELX’s Eurodollar futures contract, including a 38% increase in ADV per month since its launch in June 2010.
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Source: ELX Futures
CBOE To Apply VIX Methodology To Individual Equity Options
January 5, 2011--The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today announced that for the first time it will apply its CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) methodology to options on individual stocks when it begins publishing volatility values on five highly active equities on Friday, January 7. CBOE will calculate values for Apple (ticker symbol: VXAPL), Amazon (ticker symbol: VXAZN), IBM (ticker symbol: VXIBM), Google (ticker symbol: VXGOG), and Goldman Sachs (ticker symbol:
VXGS).
The new benchmarks are designed to measure the expected volatility of the respective individual equities.
CBOE may expand the list of individual equities on which volatility values would be calculated in the future, depending on demand.
"As the leader in the volatility space, CBOE looks forward to expanding its suite of volatility benchmarks to individual equities, giving both personal and institutional investors the ability to track individual stock volatility for the first time," CBOE Chairman and CEO William Brodsky said. "CBOE has been extremely successful in developing highly-acclaimed volatility measures linked to stock indexes and to other asset classes including gold and oil. Applying our methodology to individual equity options is the next logical next step."
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Source: CBOE
Morgan Stanley-ETF Fund Flows Net Cash Flows Estimates
January 4, 2011-We estimate that net cash inflows into US-listed
ETFs were $42.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2010. This report contains our estimates and
analysis of 4Q 2010 ETF flows for the US market. Once official data has been released, we will publish our more comprehensive flow analysis.
Net inflows into US-listed ETFs were $42.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2010, which brings net inflows in 2010 to $115.1 billion. The $42.8 billion in net cash inflows was above the average quarterly rate
of $26.2 billion over the past six years. Total US-listed
ETF assets are now over $994 billion, which represents an increase of roughly 28% in 2010.
The largest net cash inflows went into ETFs tracking emerging market indices. This asset class had net cash inflows of $10.3 billion in 4Q 2010. ETFs tracking EM indices also had the highest net cash inflows for 2010 at $30.1 billion. Fixed income ETFs had the next highest inflows in 2010 at $28.7 billion, however, exhibited net outflows of $0.9 billion in 4Q10.
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) had net cash inflows of $14.1 billion in 4Q 2010, the largest of any provider. For 2010, Vanguard had the highest net cash inflows at $40.1 billion, followed by BlackRock at $31.1 billion. As of 12/31/10, these three providers accounted for 79% of ETF assets.
There were 27 new ETFs launched in the US during 4Q 2010, bringing total issuance this year to 179. However, 49 ETFs liquidated, resulting in net new issuance of 130. As of December 31, 2010, there were 33 issuers with 967 ETFs listed in the US.
Roughly $9 billion in the total market cap of ETFs is from ETFs issued over the past year. The most successful of these (by total market cap) track platinum, palladium, and MLPs.
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Source: Morgan Stanley
Minutes Of The Federal Open Market Committee, December 14, 2010
January 4, 2010-The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Tuesday
released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on December 14, 2010.
The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are
made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in
the Board's Annual Report.
The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in
these minutes are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time
of the meeting.
view the Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee-December 14, 2010
Source: FBR
CME Group Volume Averaged 12.2 Million Contracts per Day in 2010, up 19 Percent; Double-Digit ADV Growth for Fourth Quarter and December
Fourth-quarter volume averaged 12.0 million contracts per day, up 17 percent
December volume averaged 10.5 million contracts per day, up 15 percent
Fourth-quarter agricultural commodities average daily volume set record, up 42 percent
Fourth-quarter metals average daily volume set record, up 27 percent
January 4, 2011-CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that 2010 volume averaged 12.2 million contracts per day, up 19 percent from 2009. Highlights for the year included average daily volume growth above 40 percent for foreign exchange (FX) and metals products, as well as double-digit growth in interest rates, energy and agricultural commodities.
Year-end open interest for 2010 increased 9 percent compared with year-end 2009. Fourth-quarter volume averaged 12.0 million contracts per day, up 17 percent from fourth-quarter 2009, and included record average daily volumes in agricultural commodities and metals and double-digit average daily volume growth in interest rates, FX, agricultural commodities and metals product lines.
December 2010 volume averaged 10.5 million contracts per day, up 15 percent from December 2009. Total volume for December was 232 million contracts, of which 83 percent was traded electronically.
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Source: CME Group
Open Meeting on Tenth Series of Proposed Rules under the Dodd-Frank Act
January 4, 2010--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold a public meeting to consider the issuance of proposed rulemakings under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
When:
Thursday, January 20, 2010, 9:30 AM (ET)
Where: CFTC’s Hearing Room, 1155 21st, NW, Washington DC
Topic:
Tenth Series of Proposed Rules under the Dodd-Frank Act.
Source: CFTC.gov
Open Meeting on Ninth Series of Proposed Rules under the Dodd-Frank Act
January 4, 2011-The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold a public meeting to consider the issuance of proposed rulemakings under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
When:
Thursday, January 13, 2010, 9:30 AM (ET)
Where: CFTC’s Hearing Room, 1155 21st, NW, Washington DC
Topic: Ninth Series of Proposed Rules under the Dodd-Frank Act
This event is open to the public.
The Commission will consider proposed rulemakings on the following topics:
the issuance of a proposed rulemaking regarding position limits for derivatives;
the issuance of a proposed rulemaking regarding swap trading relationship documentation requirements for swap dealers and major swap participants; and
the adoption of a final rule that addresses requirements for derivatives clearing organizations, designated contract markets and swap execution facilities regarding the mitigation of conflicts of interest.
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Source: CFTC.gov
U.S. Corporate Credit Trends to Show Further Improvement with Modest Event Risks in 2011
January 4, 2011--Rating Outlook
U.S. corporate credit trends in 2011 should remain on the same trajectory as in 2010, with modest economic growth, improving operating profiles, and good liquidity offsetting a number of still-weak macroeconomic factors. As the risks of a double-dip recession recede, company-specific event risk will act as the primary catalyst for downgrades. Although the pendulum is clearly swinging back to equityholders as issuers and investors seek to boost returns in a slow-growth environment, global macro concerns remain tangible enough that most corporate issues remain cautious in their
outlooks on spending and investment.
Few companies see boom times ahead. Corporate concerns remain focused largely in two areas: the potential for global market dislocations, and the risks of regulatory/legislative actions at home.
The following credit themes are expected to be predominant in 2011.
Forecasted 2011 U.S. economic growth of 3.2% should support continued top-line and margin growth. Margin expansion will be more limited than the gains seen in 2010 due to higher raw material costs, cost-creep from the draconian cost cuts taken at the depth of the credit crisis, and a moderation of the inventoryrestocking gains achieved in early 2010.
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Source: Fitch Ratings
