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U.S. Treasury to continue shift to longer-dated debt
August 6, 2020-- The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it plans to continue a shift to longer-term notes and bonds as it issues debt in coming quarters to fund measures to offset the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The Treasury expects its borrowing needs to moderate but remain elevated according to a statement by Brian Smith, its deputy assistant secretary for federal finance, depending partly on what additional legislation is put in place.
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Source: reuters.com
Amazon and Tesla Take Off as Small Investors Embrace Fractional-Share Trading
August 6, 2020--Proponents say it has helped democratize access to the stock market, while others warn many investors could lose money
Trading slivers of individual shares has become a fervent pursuit for thousands of individual investors, amplifying the 2020 rise of pricey yet popular stocks like Amazon.com Inc. and Tesla Inc.
Fidelity Investments, which rolled out fractional trading to customers in January and February, says more than 340,000 of its accounts have placed a fractional trade, in which the customer buys or sells less than an entire share. Interactive Brokers Group Inc., another online brokerage, says around 117,000 users have enabled fractional...
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Source: wsj.com
The Robinhood Craze Is Now Moving Stocks Everywhere
August 6, 2020--Low savings rate and social distancing drive people to trade
'Trading has become the talk of the town':Interactive Brokers
Dirt cheap, automated on apps and championed by newbie traders who brandish their broker balances on Twitter, the stuck-at-home trading phenomenon, born in the USA, has become a global craze.
Retail's tentacles are everywhere. In the U.K, tax-free savings account openings at Interactive Investor jumped 238% for investors between 25 and 34 years of age in April and May. In India, newly minted day traders are crowing after falling in love with stocks that trade below 7 U.S. cents apiece and riding most of them straight up. Small-time investors in Moscow bought almost twice as many Russian shares in June than in April.
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Source: bloomberg.com
T. Rowe Price Debuts Four Active Equity ETFs
August 5, 2020-- It has been many years in the making, but T. Rowe Price today officially became a member of the exchange-traded fund community with the launch of four actively managed equity products. The funds will utilize the same investment strategies and portfolio managers as their corresponding mutual funds, but they possess the usual ETF attributes that include intra-day trading and lower expense ratios.
These products are part of the small but growing niche of actively managed ETFs from big-name asset managers that offer so-called semi-transparent portfolios that don’t have to disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
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Source: www.fa-mag.com
How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly
August 4, 2020--The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035.
In the runup to World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enlisted the entire US economy in an effort to scale up production of war material. All of the country's resources were bent to the task. In 1939, the US had 1,700 aircraft; in 1945, it had 300,000 military aircraft and 18,500 B-24 bombers.
By the time the war was won, the economy was up and humming with a massively expanded workforce (drawing in women and African Americans) and turbocharged productive capacity. Investments made during the war mobilization yielded a robust middle class and decades of sustained, broadly shared prosperity.
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Source: vox.com
Traders Ditching Mutual Funds Stoke ETF Assets to a Record
August 4, 2020--U.S. holdings reach $4.66 trillion, topping February's high
Vanguard's VOO, State Street's GLD lead inflows year-to-date
Assets in U.S. exchange-traded funds have climbed to a record, bouncing back from a sharp drop in the first half of the year as investors abandon mutual funds for securities they perceive as cheaper and easier to trade.
Holdings across all categories reached $4.66 trillion Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The previous high occurred Feb. 19, before the coronavirus pandemic sent global markets swooning.
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Source: bloomberg.com
Global X ETFs to Liquidate Five ETFs
August 3, 2020--Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds, today announced the scheduled liquidation of five ETFs (the "Funds"), based on an ongoing review process of its product lineup to ensure it meets the evolving needs of its clients. The ETFs scheduled for liquidation include:
Global X Scientific Beta U.S. ETF
Global X Scientific Beta Europe ETF
Global X Scientific Beta Asia ex-Japan ETF (SCIX)
Global X Scientific Beta Japan ETF (SCIJ)
Global X Fertilizers/Potash ETF (SOIL).
Shareholders may sell their holdings in the Funds prior to the end of the trading day on Friday, August 21, 2020, and customary brokerage charges may apply to these transactions.
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Source: GLOBAL X
Covid Supercharges Federal Reserve as Backup Lender to the World
August 3, 2020--When the coronavirus halted the global economy, the U.S. central bank lent massively to foreign counterparts
When the coronavirus brought the world economy to a halt in March, it fell to the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep the wheels of finance turning for businesses across America.
And when funds stopped flowing to many banks and companies outside America's borders-from Japanese lenders making bets on U.S. corporate debt to Singapore traders needing U.S. dollars to pay for imports-the U.S. central bank stepped in again.
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Source: wsj.com
U.S. long bond demand raises prospect of whole curve yielding below 1%
August 3, 2020--A decline in U.S. Treasury yields over recent weeks has investors eyeing the approach of an unusual phenomenon-the entire U.S. yield curve sinking below 1%.
Policymakers are looking to position the country to recover once the COVID-19 pandemic eases and allows the Fed to raise interest rates again. But those steps look a long way off as the virus continues to spread and talks on a new aid bill in Washington drag out.
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Source: reuters.com
OCC To Lower Costs for Users of U.S. Equity Derivatives Markets
August 3, 2020--Announces Fee Reduction, Projected Year-End Refund for Clearing Member Firms Will Seek Regulatory Approval to Amend Capital Management Policy with Persistent Amount of "Skin-in-the-Game"
As part of its commitment to deliver operational excellence to the users of the U.S. equity derivatives markets, OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced a reduction in clearing fees, a projected year-end refund for clearing member firms, and its intention to seek regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to amend its Capital Management Policy with a persistent minimum amount of "skin-in-the-game."
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Source: OCC (Options Clearing Corporation)