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Despite Tighter External Conditions, Latin America and the Caribbean Hold Steady
Remittances and Foreign Direct Investment provide more reliable flows
Growth continues, albeit slow: 2.3% in 2014
Without productivity reforms the region could see social progress stall
April 9, 2014--As international investors shift their focus back to advanced economies, particularly the United States, as a result of monetary policy normalization, emerging economies face much tighter financial conditions.
Still, the impact of this reversal in capital flows is less significant for Latin America and the Caribbean thanks to its new reliance on more stable international flows.
According to the latest semiannual report by the World Bank's Office of the Chief Economist for the region, during the past decade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances have come to represent a far larger share of net flows into the region than the more volatile non-FDI flows. The report "International Flows to Latin America: Rocking the Boat?" finds that these more stable flows, combined with the region's improved macroeconomic and financial policy frameworks, give much of Latin America a much better capacity to absorb external shocks.
view the World Bank report-International Flows to Latin America: Rocking the Boat?
Source: World Bank
Horizons ETFs' Active and Specialty ETF Business surpasses $2 billion in AUM
April 9, 2014--Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. and its affiliate AlphaPro Management Inc. (collectively "Horizons ETFs") are pleased to announce that AlphaPro's family of actively managed and specialty exchange traded funds ("Active ETFs") has reached $2 billion in assets under management ("AUM").
Horizons ETFs offers 28 Active ETFs managed by various portfolio managers, who aim to deliver better risk-adjusted returns than the broader markets they invest in or reference. This is unlike passive or index-tracking ETFs, also offered by Horizons ETFs, which seek to replicate the returns of benchmark indices or multiples thereof.
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Source: Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
WisdomTree Launches Suite of Currency-Hedged Japan Sector Funds
April 8, 2014--WisdomTree, an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the launch of a suite of Currency-Hedged Japan Sector Funds on the NYSE Arca. The ETFs seek to provide exposure to the respective sectors within Japanese equity markets while hedging exposure to the yen.
Each has a net expense ratio of 0.43%.1
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Source: Global Newswire
CFTC's Divisions of Market Oversight and Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Provide Conditional No-Action Relief with Respect to Swaps Trading on Multilateral Trading Facilities Overseen by Authorities Designated by European Union Member States
April 8, 2014--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Divisions of Market Oversight (DMO) and Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) today announced the joint issuance of CFTC No-Action Letter No. 14-46 (No-Action Letter 14-46), replacing CFTC No-Action Letter No. 14-16 (No-Action Letter 14-16), which DMO and DSIO issued on February 12, 2014.
No-Action Letter 14-16 provided no-action relief for:
Qualifying MTFs from the SEF registration requirement;
Parties executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from the trade execution mandate; and
Swap dealers and major swap participants executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from certain business conduct requirements.
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Source: CFTC.gov
CBO-Monthly Budget Review for March 2014
April 7, 2014--The federal government ran a budget deficit of $413 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates-$187 billion less than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year. Revenues were about 10 percent higher; and outlays, about 4 percent lower.
Receipts for the first six months of fiscal year 2014 totaled $1,320 billion, CBO estimates-$123 billion more than receipts in the same period last year. The largest increases were the following:
Individual income taxes and social insurance (payroll) taxes together rose by $92 billion, or 9 percent. Increases in amounts withheld from workers' paychecks-amounting to $73 billion (or 7 percent)-accounted for most of that gain. Besides growth in wages and salaries, changes in law contributed to the increases: In 2013, the tax rates in effect for October through December were higher than those in effect during those months in 2012 because of two changes that occurred in January 2013-namely, the expiration of the 2 percentage-point payroll tax cut and increases in tax rates for income above certain thresholds.
view the CBO Monthly Budget Review for March 2014
Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
U.S. SEC probing high-speed trading
April 1, 2014-The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has active investigations into high-frequency trading, the head of the agency said on Tuesday.
"We currently have a number of ongoing investigations regarding various market integrity and structure issues including high frequency trading and automated trading," SEC Chair Mary Jo White said before a Congressional hearing.
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Source: Reuters
Assets of all exchange-traded funds rose in February by $85.58 billion
March 29, 2014--The combined assets of the nation's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were $1.700 trillion in February, according to ICI. The Institute's monthly statistical collection also includes the value of shares issued and redeemed by exchange-traded funds.
Assets of all exchange-traded funds rose in February by $85.58 billion, or 5.3 percent, to $1.700 trillion. Over the past 12 months, ETF assets increased $292.38 billion, or 20.8 percent. Assets in domestic equity ETFs increased $223.11 billion since February 2013, and global equity ETF assets rose $46.98 billion during this period.
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Source: IIFL.com
New ETF from ALPS Looks to Capture High Yield in Emerging Markets Stocks
"ALPS Emerging Sector Dividend Dogs" Built to Provide Diversification and Dividend Potential
March 28, 2014--ALPS, a DST Company focused on asset servicing and asset gathering, today announced the launch of the ALPS Emerging Sector Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSE: EDOG), a new exchange-traded fund designed to track the overall performance of the S-Network Emerging Sector Dividend Dogs Index (EDOGX).
The Fund is the newest addition to the ALPS Sector Dividend Dogs Series, a lineup of ETFs that utilize the 'Dogs of the Dow Theory' on a sector-by-sector basis.
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Source: ALPS
Even as Japan cools, ETF manager WisdomTree seen heating up
March 28, 2014--WisdomTree Investments Inc has paid a price for being so dependent on its flagship Japan fund -as that market reversed fortune this year, shares of the asset manager fell nearly 30 percent and Citi analysts downgraded its stock.
But the company and many of its followers are undeterred, saying it can use its unique position in the white-hot exchange-traded fund space to recover from that hit and continue to grow.
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Source: Reuters
Vanguard Not 'Turning to Smart Beta': Spokesman
March 28, 2014--No, the plain-vanilla Vanguard Group isn’t changing its tune on "smart beta," a term the firm has pooh-poohed as a marketing strategy. But the message didn't quite get through in a CNBC interview this week.
Vanguard Chairman and CEO William McNabb appeared on the financial news network with what started as the indexing giant's usual favor for low-cost investments and against market timing or short-term trading.
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Source: Barron's
