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Bitcoin ETF Roars in Debut With $165 Million of Trading Volume
January 18, 2021--Purpose Bitcoin ETF, ticker BTCC, debuted in Toronto Thursday
Largest cryptocurrency has surged fivefold in the past year
North America's first Bitcoin ETF got off to a stellar start in its debut, with investors exchanging $165 million worth of shares.
After a relentless surge in the world's largest digital currency, the first Bitcoin product that’s officially labeled an exchange-traded fund debuted Thursday in Toronto. It's worth noting, though, that Europe has several crypto-tracking products that function like an ETF. The new fund, called Purpose Bitcoin ETF (ticker BTCC), invests directly in "physical/digital Bitcoin," issuer Purpose Investments Inc. said in a statement.
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Source: bloomberg.com
Putnam Investments to Launch Active ETF Strategies
February 18, 2021--Firm to Create Four Publicly Traded U.S. Equity ETFs,
including Two ESG Strategies
Putnam Investments today announced that the firm will bring four of its key U.S. equity strategies to market this year in the form of semi-transparent active exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with the first of the products expected to be available in the spring, upon completion of the registration process.
These offerings will represent the first ETF products provided by the company, which currently makes available an array of retail mutual funds, separately managed accounts, collective investment trusts, private funds and non-U.S. funds.
The investment strategies for the four initial ETF products will be similar to existing mutual funds with well-established track records, both in the ESG and large-cap equity areas, and will include: Putnam Sustainable Leaders ETF, Putnam Sustainable Future ETF, Putnam Focused Large Cap Growth ETF and Putnam Focused Large Cap Value ETF.
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Source: Putnam Investments
Wilshire Phoenix Launches Innovative Gold ETF on NYSE Arca (WGLD)
February 18, 2021--Wilshire Phoenix, a leader of innovation in the financial services industry, announces the debut of the Wilshire wShares Enhanced Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: WGLD). WGLD tracks the Wilshire Gold Index, which seeks to outperform a stand-alone investment in gold and reduce its volatility without the use of any futures, leverage, or derivatives.
The launch of WGLD marks significant innovation for commodities-based ETFs and the overall fund space.
"The industry constantly touts innovation, but often disappoints by failing to deliver any meaningful new products for investors. In contrast, WGLD offers all investors immediate access to an entirely distinct strategy and structure in a transparent and efficient manner," said Bill Herrmann, managing partner at Wilshire Phoenix.
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Source: Wilshire Phoenix
Call for SEC to regulate index providers as investment advisers
February 17, 2021--Academics say narrower thematic or style approaches should be subject to regulatory scrutiny
Stricter rules should be imposed on providers of financial indices, which underpin trillions of dollars of investment decisions globally, according to a new academic study that calls for action by US regulators.
Index providers, such as S&P Global, MSCI, FTSE Russell and Bloomberg, calculate widely used benchmarks for stocks, bonds and other securities, but these companies are not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US investment industry’s main watchdog.
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Source: FT.com
US ETF investors mainly motivated by tax loophole, study shows
February 15, 2021--$1tn has been pulled from US mutual funds in past decade with ETFs attracting a similar amount of inflows
US ETF investors mainly motivated by tax loophole, study shows.
A shift in US investor flows away from mutual funds towards exchange traded funds is being driven primarily by a tax loophole, rather than any inherent advantage of the ETF structure, a team of academics has concluded.
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Source: FT.com
Reddit effect takes cannabis stocks on a wild ride
February 13, 2021--Assets under management by pot-tracking ETFs are at an all-time high.
Cannabis stocks are the latest to experience the often shortlived high provided by Reddit exposure.
Social media has proved a powerful driver of retail sentiment so far this year, leaving investors and analysts to wonder which company might become the next GameStop.
The focus turned to pot stocks this week: three of the top five most discussed companies on the r/WallStreetBets forum on Wednesday were cannabis companies, according to alternative data provider Quiver Quantitative.
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Source: FT.com
Federal Reserve to Test Ability of Largest Banks to Weather a Recession
February 12, 2021--Stress test will feature a scenario in which markets seize up and unemployment jumps above 10%
The Federal Reserve said it would test the ability of the largest U.S. banks to weather a hypothetical recession in which markets seize up and unemployment jumps above 10%.
The so-called stress test, conducted annually to see how banks would react to dramatic market and economic shocks, will feature a scenario in which a severe global recession leads to "substantial stress" in commercial real estate and corporate debt markets, the Fed said.
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Source: wsj.com
Wall Street's SPAC craze scales new heights with record filings
February 12, 2021--Richard Branson and Barry Sternlicht were among more than two dozen investor groups that filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise new blank-check acquisition companies, setting a new record.
The 28 filings for new special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) underscore their growing appeal on Wall Street. SPACs raised a record $82 billion last year, and the trend has gathered further steam in the early weeks of 2021.
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Source: reuters.com
T Rowe Price eliminates brokerage commissions on third-party ETFs
February 11, 2021--The change also applies to stocks and follows similar fee cuts by other brokerages
T Rowe Price will drop commissions on online purchases of third-party ETFs and stocks in its brokerage accounts, joining other trading platforms that have slashed fees for retail customers.
The change will take effect on March 1, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Currently, investors with T Rowe brokerage accounts pay $19.95 for each online trade of a stock or ETF.view more
Source: FT.com
CBO-The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2021 to 2031
February 11, 2021--If current laws governing taxes and spending generally remain unchanged, CBO projects, in 2021, the federal budget deficit will total $2.3 trillion, federal debt will reach 102 percent of GDP, and real GDP will grow by 3.7 percent.
The Congressional Budget Office regularly publishes reports presenting projections of what federal budget deficits, debt, revenues, and spending-and the economic path underlying them-would be for the current year and for the following 10 years if current laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged.
For this report, the latest in the series, the projections are based on the laws in effect as of January 12, 2021. CBO's economic assessment is identical to the forecast the agency published on February 1, 2021.
CBO projects a federal budget deficit of $2.3 trillion in 2021, nearly $900 billion less than the shortfall recorded in 2020. At 10.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit in 2021 would be the second largest since 1945, exceeded only by the 14.9 percent shortfall recorded last year.
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Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
