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Wall Street rallies on State Street outlook
July 7, 2010--US stocks pushed higher for the second straight session on Wednesday as a positive earnings outlook from State Street boosted financials and outweighed concerns about the forthcoming earnings season.
There is a perception that the market is cheap relative to other asset classes and has been oversold over the past two months, said Sean Kraus, chief investment officer at Pasadena-based CitizensTrust.
“We’re seeing a dichotomy between those who think the market is cheap – they point to low price-to- earnings multiples – and those who are looking at the slowdown on a macro-economic level,” he said.
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Source: FT.com
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
July 7, 2010--Standard & Poor's Canadian Index Operations announces the following index changes:
Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG) has announced the completion of the acquisition of Shelter Bay Energy Inc.
The relative weight of Crescent Point will increase in the S&P/TSX Composite and Capped Composite, the S&P/TSX Equity and Capped Equity, the S&P/TSX Completion and Equity Completion and the S&P/TSX Capped Energy indices to reflect the issuance of new shares as part of the transaction, which will be effective after the close of Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
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
Emerging Markets Week in Review -6/28/2010 - 7/2/2010
July 6, 2010--The Dow Jones Emerging Markets Composite Index declined for its second consecutive week, down 3.62% over concerns of slower than expected global growth in the second half of 2010. Utilities and Health Care, two of the more defensive sectors, were the best performing groups, down only 0.33% and 1.43% respectively. Materials led the market down for the week, losing 6.02%, and has been the worst performing sector so far in 2010.
As the second quarter came to a close last week, all emerging market sectors were negative for the period despite optimism that developing regions will continue to buoy weaker growth from their developed counterparts.
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Source: Emerging Global Advisors
Brazil Consumer ETF to Begin Trading in New York, Global X Says
July 6, 2010--The Global X Brazil Consumer ETF will begin trading in New York on July 8, said the chief executive officer of Global X Management Company LLC, the asset manager overseeing the exchange-traded fund.
The ETF will track the Solactive Brazil Consumer Index of 28 companies including Cia de Bebidas das Americas, Latin America’s largest brewer known as AmBev, and JBS SA, the world’s biggest beef producer. It will trade under the ticker symbol BRAQ and will be listed on NYSE Arca, an electronic market operated in New York by NYSE Euronext, Bruno del Ama, chief executive officer of New York-based Global X, said in a phone interview from Los Angeles.
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Source: Business Week
London calling: U.K.’s ETF Securities plans big commodities push in U.S.
July 6, 2010--ETF Securities, a London-based provider of exchange-traded funds, is planning a major push into the U.S. market with the launch of 18 commodities-based ETFs and a precious-metals basket ETF.
As of now, the firm markets just four ETFs in the U.S, all launched this year. But the company wants to expand its offerings in response to investor and adviser demand for commodities, which aren’t correlated to the markets, said Will Rhind, strategic director.
While there has been much attention paid to gold of late, investors and advisers realize that other commodities are also worth looking at, he said.
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Source: Investment News
Euro worries slam stock funds, Morningstar says
July 5, 2010--
-- Those with investments weighted toward stocks or stock-based funds are likely poorer now than they were three months ago, according Morningstar Canada’s quarterly statistics on equity-based funds.
The investment-research firm said in a report on Monday that most world stock markets lost ground for a third straight month in June. It said money shifted away from risky investments, such as stocks, and toward the relative safety of fixed-income products and precious metals.
The increasing adversity to investor risk was attributed to concerns earlier in the quarter about debt levels in “a handful of European countries,” with worries escalating to doubts about the state of the world’s economic recovery, Morningstar said.
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Source: Financial Post
IMF Managing Director Encourages Caribbean Countries to Face Challenges
Push Forward with Economic Reforms
July 5, 2010--Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), gathered with Caribbean leaders in Montego Bay, Jamaica, for the 31st Regular Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). “Caribbean countries have an opportunity to put an end to the negative cycles of high debt and low growth that have been affecting their economies, and set forth towards a path of long-term, sustainable growth”, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said.
The Caribbean has been significantly affected by the global crisis, Mr. Strauss-Kahn noted in his presentation to the 15 heads of state and officials from the region, the first ever participation of an IMF managing director in the CARICOM meeting. High debt burdens and tight financing left Caribbean leaders with little room for fiscal stimulus, while the room to lower interest rates has been constrained by fixed exchange rate regimes. In some countries, strains have appeared in the financial sector, and the proposed tightening in international standards for offshore financial centers will also pose challenges.
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Source: IMF
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
July 5, 2010--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Monday, July 5, 2010:
PanWestern Energy Inc. (TSXVN:PW) will change its name to Valeura Energy Inc. The new ticker symbol will be "VLE" and the new CUSIP number will be 919144 10 5.
There is no consolidation of capital.
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
RiskMetrics dissolves KLD index team ahead of MSCI Barra ESG benchmark launches
July 5, 2010--RiskMetrics, the New York-based risk and ESG data group, has dissolved the index team that it took over last year when it bought KLD, the Boston-based ESG research firm, as it prepares to launch a new series of ESG indices this month under new parent, MSCI Barra.
It is understood that two members of the five-strong KLD index team, Ken Frankel, former index data manager at KLD and Katherine Walsh, former index research analyst at KLD, are being made redundant.
Two other members of the team, Karin Chamberlain, former manager of KLD Indexes, and Peter Ellsworth, former managing director of FTSE KLD Indexes, are believed to be seeking alternative positions within MSCI Barra. Tom Kuh, former managing director of KLD Indexes is understood to be staying within RiskMetrics under its new MSCI Barra ownership.
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Source: Responsible Investor
The Bermuda Monetary Authority Establishes Strategic Team of Senior Advisors
New role to support expanded regulatory framework resulting from Solvency II equivalence preparations
July 4, 2010--The Bermuda Monetary Authority announced today that it has established a team of Senior Advisors that will
provide international strategic input and technical assistance to the organisation as it prepares its insurance framework for Solvency II equivalence assessments.
The team of Senior Advisors will support the Authority’s
growing organisational infrastructure, and the technical teams that will implement the expanded supervisory regimes resulting from its regulatory change programme.
Jeremy Cox, CEO at the Authority said, “As a leading risk-based regulator, our goal at the Authority is to ensure that we are operating at the highest level. Building on our resources has been a strategic priority for some time as we set our sights on developing a leading insurance regulatory framework for the Bermuda market. The Senior Advisors joining the Authority are individuals with extensive industry and regulatory experience, both here in Bermuda and in major markets overseas, who will complement the existing expertise within the organisation and assist us in raising our game as supervisors. We will be building this team of highly specialised strategic and technical advisors with additional appointments over the next two months.
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Source: Bermuda Monetary Authority
