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House Panel Passes Retirement Bill to Raise RMD Age, Boost Annuities
April 2, 2019--Chairman Neal stated Tuesday that retirement legislation is one of his “top priorities.”
The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday passed H.R. 1994, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019, which makes it easer to offer annuities in 401(k) and 403(b) plans, raises the age for taking required minimum distributions from 70 1/2 to 72, and expands 529 plan use to homeschooling.
During the bill's Tuesday morning markup, Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., stated that one of his "top priorities" as chairman "is to help workers of all ages prepare for a financially secure retirement."
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Source: thinkadvisor.com
Innovator Lists April Series of S&P 500 Buffer ETFs Expanding Defined Outcome ETF(sm) Suite to Twelve
April 1, 2019--The only ETFs in the world to provide S&P 500 exposure, up to a cap, with known downside buffers of 9%, 15%, or 30%
Innovator Capital Management, LLC (Innovator) announced today the April Series of Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETFs have begun trading on the Cboe.
The Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETFsm suite seeks to provide investors with exposure to the S&P 500 Price Return Index (S&P 500) up to a Cap, with downside buffer levels of 9%, 15%, or 30% over an Outcome Period of approximately one year. The ETFs reset annually and can be held indefinitely. Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETFs, with over $390 million in AUM as of March 29, 2019, are among the fastest growing new category of ETFs in the market today.
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Source: Innovator Capital Management, LLC
SEC Delays Decision on 2 Bitcoin ETF Filings
April 1, 2019--They are the Bitwise and VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETFs.
If the Securities and Exchange Commission had approved a Bitwise Bitcoin ETF today-April's Fool Day-would anyone have believed it?
Today marked the end of the 45-day public comment period for the ETF and the SEC punted, extending the deadline to May 16.
"The commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change," according to a commission statement released on March 29. By May 16, it expects to "approve or disapprove or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove the proposed rule change," according to the statement.
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Source: thinkadvisor.com
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
March 29, 2019--The current reports for the week of March 29, 2019 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Renaissance Capital-1Q19 US IPO Review: Quiet First Quarter Ends with a Lyft
March 29, 2019--During the quarter, only 18 IPOs priced, raising $4.7 billion, the slowest quarter by deal count in three years. The sharp December equity market decline and government shutdown contributed to a very slow January when only one IPO priced.
IPO activity picked up in late February and continued in March, culminating in the long-anticipated IPOs of Levi's and Lyft. While overall average quarterly performance was not particularly strong due to a handful of mostly small deals that priced in January and early February, momentum shifted in March, with issuers producing strong returns.
This was also reflected in the returns of the IPO index, up 31% for the quarter. IPO activity should be robust in the 2Q due to the large number of companies that have announced plans to go public. Since Lyft filed at the beginning of March, 17 additional companies have filed with the SEC with total potential deal proceeds of nearly $7 billion, exceeding that raised in this quarter and five of the preceding 12 quarters.
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Source: Renaissance Capital LLC
Lipper U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Funds Experience Net Inflows as Investors Park Assets in Money Market Funds
March 29, 2019--Lipper's fund asset groups (including both mutual funds and ETFs) had net positive flows of $24.6 billion for the fund-flows trading week ended Wednesday, March 27. Money market funds drove the overall net inflows as they took in $31.6 billion in net new money.
Taxable bond funds (+$2.5 billion) and municipal debt funds (+$1.5 billion) also contributed to the net positive flows, while equity funds suffered net outflows of $11.0 billion.
Market Overview
The major equity indices were all down for the fund-flows trading week. The NASDAQ Composite was the hardest hit (-1.11%), while the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 0.67% and 0.47%, respectively.
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Source: Refinitiv
WisdomTree Announces Europe Multifactor Fund (EUMF) and Japan Multifactor Fund (JAMF)
March 29, 2019--Formerly WisdomTree Dynamic Currency Hedged Europe Equity Fund (DDEZ) and
WisdomTree Dynamic Currency Hedged Japan Equity Fund (DDJP)
Firm Continues to Grow Multifactor ETF Suite, Utilizing Modern AlphaTM Approach
WisdomTree (NASDAQ: WETF), an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") and exchange-traded product ("ETP") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the implementation of changes for the WisdomTree Dynamic Currency Hedged Europe Equity Fund (DDEZ) and the WisdomTree Dynamic Currency Hedged Japan Equity Fund (DDJP).
Effective today, the fund names, tickers, investment objectives and investment strategies have changed, and both funds will transition to transparent, models-based actively managed multifactor strategies, as reflected below. The funds' expense ratios remain unchanged.
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Source: WisdomTree
Evolve Files Preliminary Prospectus for Canada's First Actively Managed U.S. Marijuana ETF
March 29, 2019--Evolve Funds Group Inc. ("Evolve") is pleased to announce that it has filed a preliminary prospectus with the Canadian securities regulators for Canada's first actively managed U.S. marijuana industry focused ETF.
The U.S. Marijuana ETF ("USMJ") is designed to provide investors with long-term capital appreciation by actively investing in a diversified mix of equity securities of public issuers that are involved in the U.S. marijuana industry where state and local laws regulate and permit such activities. Evolve will act as portfolio manager for USMJ.
USMJ follows the success of Evolve's actively managed, Evolve Marijuana ETF ("SEED") which is Canada's top performing TSX-listed equity ETF over the past 1 year. ending February 28, 2019.
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Source: Evolve Funds Group Inc.
Horizons ETFs Rebalances the Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers Index ETF (HMJR)
March 29, 2019--Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") has completed the quarterly rebalance of the constituent holdings of the Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers Index ETF ("HMJR:NEO"). HMJR seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Emerging Marijuana Growers Index, net of expenses.
The Emerging Marijuana Growers Index is designed to provide exposure to the performance of a basket of primarily North American publicly listed smallcapitalization companies primarily involved in the cultivation, production and/or distribution of marijuana.
HMJR invests in small-market-capitalization companies with market capitalizations generally between CAD $50 million and CAD $500 million.
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Source: Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
CFTC Unanimously Approves Project KISS Rulemakings to Ease Regulatory Burdens
March 28, 2019-The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it has unanimously approved two final rule amendments to simplify registrants' obligations.
"These final rule both originated as proposal from our Project KISS initiative, intended to simplify and reduce burdens by revisiting our rules based on staff implementation experience and public comment," said CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo. "By reducing the unnecessary complexity and prescriptiveness of these rules, we are providing additional flexibility for market participants, without reducing the effectiveness of our rules."
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Source: CFTC.gov