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Standard & Poor's licenses S&P 500 to Vanguard
June 25, 2010--Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that is has licensed the S&P 500, the most widely followed gauge of the U.S. equity markets, to Vanguard for the creation and listing of an Exchanged Traded Fund (ETF) based upon the Index. The licensing agreement also enables Vanguard to launch eight new equity funds and ETFs targeting the growth and value segments of the S&P 500, and the growth, value and blend segments of the S&P MidCap 400 and the S&P SmallCap 600.
The agreement with Vanguard follows Standard & Poor's announcement in May that it had licensed seven European ETF sponsors to create and list S&P 500 Exchange Traded Funds on exchanges in major European cities. It also comes on the heels of Standard & Poor's groundbreaking March announcement that it had licensed the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to create and list Indian Rupee-denominated futures contracts on the S&P 500.(1)
"Since it was first published in 1957, the S&P 500 has served as the cornerstone for the global development of ETF products, as well as other index-based investments throughout the world," says Alex Matturri, Executive Managing Director at S&P Indices. "Our agreement with Vanguard, and just recently with the seven European ETF sponsors and the NSE, underscores Standard & Poor's commitment to providing global investors with greater access to the products they need to meet their trading objectives."
Widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equity market since it was first introduced in 1957, the S&P 500 Index has over $4.83 trillion benchmarked to it globally, and approximately $1.1 trillion indexed. The Index includes 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy.
The S&P MidCap 400 provides investors with a benchmark for mid-sized companies. The Index seeks to remain an accurate measure of mid-sized companies, reflecting the risk and return characteristics of the broader mid-cap universe on an on-going basis.
The S&P SmallCap 600 measures the small cap segment of the market that is typically renowned for poor trading liquidity and financial instability. The Index is designed to be an efficient portfolio of companies that meet specific inclusion criteria to ensure that they are investable and financially viable.
For more information on all of Standard & Poor's indices, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.
Source: Standard & Poors
NASDAQ Closing Cross Had a Record Day for the Seventh Year on Russell Index Reconstitution
June 25, 2010--he NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) today announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross had a record day today as it was used to reconfigure the entire family of U.S. Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution.
A record 1.042 billion shares representing $11.2 billion were executed in the Closing Cross in 0.85 seconds across some 2,942 NASDAQ-listed stocks. This compares with 1.002 billion shares representing $9.3 billion executed in 2.9 seconds during Russell's annual reconstitution in 2009.
NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross are widely used throughout the industry, including by Russell Investments, Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country.
"For the past seven years, market makers, index providers, mutual fund managers and the investing public have consistently demonstrated their confidence in NASDAQ’s leading price discovery facility,” said Eric Noll, Executive Vice President of Transaction Services, NASDAQ OMX. “The NASDAQ Closing Cross had another record-breaking performance during one of the heaviest trading sessions of year due to NASDAQ’s speed, market integrity and the reliability of our global technology platform.”
The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ, NYSE and NYSE Amex stocks and executes all shares for each stock at a single price, one that reflects the true supply and demand for these securities. All nationally-listed securities are eligible for the NASDAQ Closing Cross.
The Russell U.S. Indexes include only common stocks incorporated in the U.S., its territories, and certain countries or regions offering U.S. companies operational, tax, political or other financial benefits. All U.S. indexes are subsets of the Russell 3000E™ Index, which represents approximately 99% of the U.S. equity market. Russell U.S. Indexes allow investors to track current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large cap/small cap) or investment style (growth/value). Today, more than $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes.
Russell reconstitution day is usually one of the most highly anticipated and heaviest trading days in the U.S. equity market as asset managers seek to reconfigure their portfolios to reflect the composition of Russell's U.S. indexes. The index reconstitution process was completed today and the newly reconstituted index membership will take effect before markets open on Monday, June 28, 2010.
For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
June 25, 2010--The CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports for the week of June 22, 2010 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
U.S. Department of the Treasury Economic Statistics - Quarterly Data Update
June 25, 2010--The Quarterly Data for U.S. Department of the Treasury has recently been updated, and is now available.
view report
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury
State Street files with the SEC
June 25, 2010--State Street has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the
SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources ETF
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Vanguard files with SEC
June 25, 2010--Vanguard has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
read more
Source: SEC.gov
Vanguard to launch 19 new funds, with ETF options
June 24, 2010--Vanguard said Thursday it will expand its index investment offerings with 19 new mutual funds, each with an exchange-traded fund version holding the same stocks or bonds as the companion mutual fund.
The nation's largest fund company also is launching an ETF version of its S&P 500 Index fund, which Vanguard introduced in 1976 and now holds $91 billion.
Vanguard filed applications with regulators to offer the funds, and hopes to have them on the market by the fall, said Melissa Nassar, a principal in Vanguard's financial adviser services group.
While the ETFs will be accessible to individual investors, the new mutual funds are geared toward institutional clients and financial advisers, since they require minimum investments of $5 million.
Each of the funds and companion ETFs will invest in segments of the stock and bond markets not already covered by Vanguard's existing lineup of more than 160 mutual funds and 46 ETFs — for example, the S&P 500 value index or the Russell 2000 growth index. Sixteen of the new funds will invest in stocks. Three of the new offerings are bond funds, focused on municipal bonds with short-, intermediate and long-term maturities.
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Source: Associated Press
BlackRock proposes changes to iShares S&P/TSX Income Trust Index Fund
June 24, 2010--BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc., announced today that it has called a special meeting of unitholders of the iShares(R) S&P(R)/TSX(R) Income Trust Index to be held on August 23, 2010, to approve changes to the exchange traded fund's (ETF) investment objective and certain related matters.
"At iShares, we are constantly seeking solutions to better meet the needs of investors," said Oliver McMahon, director of product management for iShares ETFs at BlackRock Canada.
"As income trusts assess their conversion strategies in time for the January 2011 deadline, we believe that making this change will ensure investors receive a reliable income stream while still enjoying the benefits they've come to associate with iShares ETFs including diversification, transparency, lower costs, tax efficiency and the ability to use value-adding trading strategies such as limit and stop orders."
Summary of changes to investment objective
BlackRock Canada is proposing to change the investment objective of XTR from its current investment objective of seeking to provide long-term capital growth by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index (Index) to an investment objective of seeking to provide unitholders with a consistent monthly cash distribution, with the potential for some modest capital growth, through investment in a diversified portfolio of income-bearing investments. XTR's investment strategy would change from investing primarily in issuers which make up the Index to a fund strategy, whereby XTR would seek to achieve its investment objective by holding a portfolio of income-bearing ETFs.
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Source: BlackRock
CFTC Releases Report on the Registration Program of the NFA
June 24, 2010--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight (Division) today notified the National Futures Association (NFA) of the results of the Division’s “Report on the Registration Program of the NFA”. In the Report, the Division assessed whether the NFA has sufficient procedures to execute the Commission’s delegated registration and fitness functions.
The Division found that NFA has sufficient procedures to execute the Commission’s delegated functions with respect to the vast majority of registrants. However, the Division also identified nine areas in which the Commission’s and/or NFA’s procedures must be improved.
read the Public Report on the Registration Program of the National Futures Association
Source: CFTC.gov
Vanguard files with the SEC
June 24, 2010--Vanguard has filed a registration statement with the SEC for
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses: 0.06%
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
