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CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
February 1, 2013--The current reports for the week of January 29, 2013 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Sights set on $3tn assets milestone
February 1, 2013--The exchange traded funds industry started 2013 in a celebratory fashion.
The first US ETF marked its 20th birthday this month, having grown into a $125bn giant just as worldwide assets held in exchange traded funds and products reached an all-time high above the $2tn mark.
Reaching $1tn in assets took 19 years. But growth accelerated once that milestone was passed in 2009 and assets have doubled in less than four years, even as the global financial crisis has raged on.
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Source: FT.com
WisdomTree Launches Global Corporate Bond Fund (GLCB)
Income-Oriented Strategy Combines Flexible Global Mandate with Active Credit Analysis
Sub-Advised by Leading Corporate Bond Manager Western Asset Management Company
January 31, 2013--WisdomTree (NASDAQ: WETF), an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the launch of the WisdomTree Global Corporate Bond Fund (GLCB).
GLCB is an actively managed ETF which will invest in corporate fixed income securities from around the world, and follows the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund (EMCB) as the Company’s second credit fund to be sub-advised by Western Asset Management Company (Western Asset).
Luciano Siracusano, WisdomTree Chief Investment Strategist, said, “We believe fixed income investors should not limit themselves to a domestic universe of corporate debt securities when an expanding $11.2 trillion global credit market presents robust opportunities in our increasingly global economy.1”
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Source: Wisdom Tree
NASDAQ Announces Annual Changes to the Dividend Achievers Indexes
January 31, 2013-- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NDAQ), parent of the world's first electronic stock market and a leading index provider, today announced the results of the annual reconstitution of the Dividend Achievers(TM) Indexes.
To view the 2013 Dividend Achievers Reconstitution file and a downloadable file of each index's constituents, visit http://www.indxis.com/Reconstitutions.html.
NASDAQ OMX recently acquired the index business of Mergent, Inc., including Indxis -- an expert provider of index calculation services to a wide spectrum of clients in the financial services industry. As a result of this acquisition, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes now owns the Dividend Achievers Indexes, the leading index family that tracks companies with strong long-term dividend growth. NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes is now one of the largest providers of dividend-themed indexes based on benchmarked assets.
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Source: NASDAQ OMX
Questrade to offer commission free ETF purchases
Questrade has made its mark offering rock bottom commissions for trading stocks. The trend continues.
January 31, 2013--Questrade made its mark in Canada by offering rock bottom commissions for trading stocks. The online discount broker entered the market in 1999 and has achieved a number of firsts in the industry over the years.
They were the first broker to offer $4.95 stock trades and the first to offer a U.S. RRSP option where you can hold U.S. cash and collect U.S. dividends without being forced to convert them to Canadian dollars. In another industry first, Questrade will offer free commission on any ETF purchases starting February 1st.
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Source: The Star
IMF Working paper-External Conditions and Debt Sustainability in Latin America
January 30, 2013--Summary: Highly favorable external conditions have helped Latin America strengthen its economic fundamentals over the last decade. But, has the region built enough buffers to guard itself from a weakening of the external environment?
This paper addresses this question by developing a simple framework that integrates econometric estimates of the effect of global factors on key domestic variables that determine public and external debt dynamics, with the IMF‘s standard debt sustainability framework. Results suggest that, while some countries in the region are well placed to withstand moderate or even large shocks, many would benefit from having stronger buffers to be in a position to deploy countercyclical policies, especially under tail events. External sustainability, on the other hand, does not appear to be a source of concern for most countries.
view the IMF Working paper-External Conditions and Debt Sustainability in Latin America
Source: IMF
Knight Looks to Sell Fixed-Income Units .
January 30, 2013--Knight Capital Group Inc. plans to sell some assets and has cut staff ahead of the trading firm's planned sale to a rival, according to people close to the company.
Bank of America, Merrill Lynch has been hired to explore a sale of Knight's bond-trading and reverse-mortgage units, part of a division that has struggled for years to turn a steady profit, these people said.
The effort to sell the two units would mark the biggest step so far to refocus Knight on its core business of buying and selling shares, following a years-long push by Chief Executive Officer Thomas Joyce to diversify into asset classes such as bonds and currencies.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
Horizons ETFs announces final valuations for terminated ETFs
January 30, 2013--Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") and its affiliate Horizons ETFs Management ( Canada ) Inc. (the "Manager") have previously announced, by way of a press release dated November 16, 2012, that certain exchange traded funds ("ETFs") will be terminated effective upon the close of business today, January 18, 2013.
The ETFs being terminated (collectively, the "Terminated ETFs"), with their respective final net asset values ("Final NAV") per unit, are as follows:
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Source: Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc.
National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 4th quarter and annual 2012 (advance estimate)
January 30, 2013--Real gross domestic product--the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States--decreased at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.1 percent.
The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on
source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 4
and the "Comparisons of Revisions to GDP" on page 5). The "second" estimate for the fourth quarter,
based on more complete data, will be released on February 28, 2013.
The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from private inventory investment, federal government spending, and exports that were partly offset by positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The downturn in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected downturns in private inventory investment, in federal government spending, in exports, and in state and local government spending that were partly offset by an upturn in nonresidential fixed investment, a larger decrease in imports, and an acceleration in PCE.
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Source: BEA
Federal Reserve Issues FOMC Statement
January 30, 2013--Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December suggests that growth in economic activity paused in recent months, in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors.
Employment has continued to expand at a moderate pace but the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has shown further improvement. Inflation has been running somewhat below the Committee’s longer-run objective, apart from temporary variations that largely reflect fluctuations in energy prices. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
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Source: FRB