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Standard & Poor's Announces Changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
December 17, 2010--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Friday, December 17, 2010:
Antares Minerals Inc. (TSXV:ANM) will be removed from the index.
The shares of the company have been acquired by First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (TSX:FM) pursuant to an arrangement agreement.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poors
ListSearchPrint Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
December 17, 2010--Standard & Poor's Canadian Index Operations announces the following index changes:
The unitholders of Enbridge Income Fund (TSX:ENF.UN) have approved the conversion of the company to a corporate structure through a Plan of Arrangement. The units will be exchanged on a 1-for-1 basis for Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (TSX:ENF).
As a result of the conversion, Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. will be added to the S&P/TSX Equity SmallCap Index. The conversion is effective after the close of Monday, December 20, 2010. The name and ticker change, with no change in capitalization, will be effective in the S&P/TSX SmallCap Index.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poors
CFTC Delays Consideration of Proposal Aimed at Restricting Oil Speculation
December 17, 2010--The top U.S. commodities regulator delayed consideration of a plan to curb speculation in raw materials including oil, gold and wheat as part of the most sweeping rewrite of Wall Street rules since the 1930s.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission postponed an expected vote today on publishing a two-part proposal to restrict the number of contracts one firm can hold for a 60-day public comment period. The plan, if approved, would limit traders to 25 percent of deliverable supply in the contract nearest to expiration, followed by an all-month ceiling of 10 percent of open interest up to the first 25,000 contracts and 2.5 percent thereafter.
Source: Blomberg
Obama woos private capital back to mortgage market
December 16, 2010--The Obama administration is planning to encourage private capital back to the mortgage market by scaling down government guarantees even if Congress fails to pass housing finance reform, according to people familiar with the so-called Plan B for the mortgage market.
The Treasury is due to deliver plans for comprehensive reform in January but officials are already preparing to sidestep what is likely to be a long and bitter battle in Congress over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned companies that now guarantee more than 90 per cent of all new mortgages.
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Source: FT.com
Brazil targets foreign bond investors
December 16, 2010--Brazil has unveiled a series of measures designed to attract foreign money into its corporate bond market. The move is designed to reduce the role of state banks, which have dominated lending in South America’s biggest economy.
Brazil< needs to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to improve its dilapidated infrastructure, especially ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But an overabundance of capital inflows have lately proved a headache for policymakers, who have raised a tax on bond inflows to 6 per cent in an attempt to curb the appreciation of the Brazilian currency, the real.
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Source: FT.com
"Position Points"
Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton, Meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
December 16, 2010
On Tuesday, in remarks to Americans for Financial Reform, I discussed a proposal that could serve as an interim step prior to the implementation of mandatory position limits required by the new financial reform law. I detailed this "Position Point" proposal yesterday in testimony before Congress. I have also spoken with the heads of exchanges and market participants about Position Points. Here are the details of my proposal:
Once a trader reaches a specific Position Point, it triggers a new level of heightened regulatory scrutiny.
A Position Point is reached when a trader has an aggregate, on-exchange position limit of 10% of the first 25,000 contracts of open interest in one of 28 commodities (in energy, metals, and agricultural commodities), then 2.5% of open interest above 25,000 contracts.
This triggers a special call of that trader’s swaps positions.
If the swaps positions, netted with on-exchange positions, reduced the aggregate to below the Position Point, there is no regulatory action.
If the swaps positions, netted with on-exchange positions, increases the aggregate to above the Position Point, then regulators use all available authorities, as appropriate, to reduce those positions.
Source: CFTC.gov
Opening Statement, Eighth Series of Proposed Rulemakings Under the Dodd-Frank Act
Commissioner Scott O’Malia
December 16, 2010--Mr. Chairman, I am grateful this is the final rulemaking for 2010. As you noted, we have noticed 30 proposed rulemakings, four advanced notices, two interim final rules, and one final rule. While I am thankful that we have just a few more rulemakings left to complete in the new year, I recognize we are only halfway through the process – and it’s probably the case that the easiest portion is past us.
The next step is to digest the mountain of comment letters that I hope market participants will provide. Of course, I am assuming they have had time to read and consider the thousands of pages of proposed rules. For this process to be meaningful, we must ensure that the public has adequate time to digest each rulemaking and we must be mindful that they are working through a cumulative burden of thousands of pages of text and hundreds of questions posed by staff.
Since it is the holiday season, and I have already shared Macey’s list, I figure its time I shared my own wish list with the Commission. I have always operated under the premise that you don’t get what you don’t ask for.
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Source: CFTC.gov
NASDAQ OMX to Acquire FTEN
A Market Leader in Real-Time Risk Management Solutions
Decemeber 15, 2010-The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. has agreed to acquire FTEN, Inc. (FTEN), a leading provider of Real-Time Risk Management (RTRM) solutions for the financial securities market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
FTEN is a market leader in RTRM and is well positioned to grow as the industry is becoming more focused on solutions for effectively managing risk. Market participants are seeking tools that provide real-time, low latency enterprise-wide risk management, market awareness and control. FTEN's technology provides broker-dealers and their clients the ability to manage risk more effectively in real-time, which leads to better utilization of capital as well as improved regulatory compliance.
This acquisition is expected to add a significant product resource to NASDAQ OMX, allowing it to offer an industry-leading service to its clients. NASDAQ OMX will offer FTEN solutions to its global base of broker-dealers and the international exchange community.
Eric Noll, Executive Vice President of Transaction Services at NASDAQ OMX, said: "FTEN's customer base is comprised of some of the leading broker dealers in the global market and its offerings are the most comprehensive in terms of functionality, asset class and market spread. As part of NASDAQ OMX, FTEN will be able to increase its penetration globally, greatly broadening its distribution network beyond the U.S. to a worldwide solution, while expanding its U.S. customer base."
Ted Myerson Chief Executive Officer of FTEN, said: "We recognized early on that demand for pre-trade risk management tools would dramatically increase as the regulatory environment evolved and the need for comprehensive risk controls moved from niche to mainstream. We are proud to have developed a solution that has given us a strong market position. The transaction with NASDAQ OMX gives us the ability to broaden the scope of customers we can reach in the U.S. and tap into its international network of exchange partners."
Source: The NASDAQ OMX Group
Testimony before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, U.S. House Agriculture Committee, Washington, D.C.
Commissioner Bart Chilton
December 15, 2010-Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Moran, members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today.
In the last decade, we saw the U.S. futures industry grow five-fold when the rest of the world grew three-fold. In several years we saw over $200 billion come into regulated U.S. futures markets. This new money was primarily from speculators, much of which was held by speculators I call "massive passives," those with a known, fairly price-insensitive trading strategy.
Then, in 2008, we saw a huge commodity bubble. Wheat was at $24. Today it is around $8. Crude oil spiked to $147.27 and gas was at $4 per gallon. Then the economy and commodity prices all fell off a cliff. Did the new speculators, including the massive passives, contribute to that price volatility—volatility that had farmers and ranchers, small and large agri-businesses and other businesses alike all paying higher prices than they should?
Researchers at Oxford, MIT, Princeton and Rice all say speculative interests had an impact on prices. Some have said the speculators drove prices. In fairness, some on the other side of the issue say there was no impact whatsoever. My take is somewhere in the middle. Speculators didn't drive prices, but they tagged along and helped to push them to levels, high and then low, that we would not have seen without them.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Horizons BetaPro Launches Canada’s First Volatility Tracking ETFs
December 16, 2010--BetaPro Management Inc. (“BetaPro”), the manager of the Horizons BetaPro family of exchange traded funds, is pleased to announce the launch of two new exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), the Horizons BetaPro
S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures™ ETF (“HBP Single VIX ETF” or “HUV”) and the
Horizons BetaPro S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures™ Bull Plus ETF (“HBP Double
VIX ETF” or “HVU”) (together, the “VIX ETFs”) which track the performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures™ Index (the “S&P VIX S-T Index”).
These are the first Canadian ETFs tracking the S&P VIX S-T Index, and the HBP Double VIX ETF is the first two-times leveraged ETF tracking the S&P VIX S-T Index to be offered in the world.
The HBP Single VIX ETF is designed to provide investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to the performance of the S&P VIX S-T Index. Any U.S. dollar gains or losses as a result of the HBP Single VIX ETF’s investments will be hedged back to the Canadian dollar to the best of its ability.
The HBP Double VIX ETF is designed to provide daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to twice the daily performance of the S&P VIX S-T Index. Any U.S. dollar gains or losses as a result of the HBP Double VIX ETF’s investments will be hedged back to the Canadian dollar to the best of its ability. The HBP Double VIX ETF does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective over a period of time greater than one day.
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Source: BetaPro Management Inc.
