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BNY Mellon ADR Index Monthly Performance Review is Now Available-
July 17, 2012--The BNY Mellon ADR Index Monthly Performance Review June 2012 is now available.
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Source: BNY Mellon
Global X Funds Launches SuperIncome Preferred ETF (SPFF)
Firm adds to suite of income-generating funds
July 17, 2012--Global X Funds, the New York-based provider of exchange- traded funds (ETFs), today launched the Global X SuperIncome Preferred ETF (Ticker: SPFF).
SPFF is designed to track 50 of the highest yielding preferred securities in North America.
For investors seeking income, preferred shares are an asset class worth considering due to their unique combination of bond and equity characteristics. Like bonds, preferred shares generally pay stable dividends with more frequent distributions than common shares. Like equity, preferred shares trade on an exchange and have the potential to appreciate in value, offering additional income growth potential for investors. In addition, preferred shareholders have priority over common shareholders with regard to claims on company earnings and assets - this may provide downside protection if a company is forced to liquidate its assets. By screening for the highest yielding preferred securities and paying monthly dividends, SPFF allows investors to diversify their income streams and potentially increase the yield of their overall portfolio.
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Source: Global X
State Street Buys Goldman Sachs Unit as Revenue
July 17, 2012--State Street Corp. (STT), the third- largest custody bank, agreed to buy the hedge-fund administration unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) to boost growth as second-quarter revenue
fell amid declining global markets and record-low interest rates.
State Street agreed to pay $550 million in cash for the Goldman Sachs unit to become the world’s largest servicer of alternative assets such as hedge funds, the Boston-based company said today.
State Street fell as much as 5.6 percent in New York, the most in seven months, as declining assets and fees spurred a 1.9 percent drop in revenue to $2.43 billion.
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Source: Bloomberg
Treasury International Capital Data for May
July 17, 2012--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for May 2012. The next release, which will report on data for June 2012, is scheduled for August 15, 2012.
The sum total in May of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC inflow of $101.7 billion.
Of this, net foreign private inflows were $60.3 billion, and net foreign official inflows were $41.4 billion.
Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term U.S. securities in May – net purchases were $50.1 billion. Net purchases by private foreign investors were $19.9 billion, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were $30.2 billion.
At the same time, U.S. residents decreased their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net sales of $4.9 billion.
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Source: US Department of the Treasury
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress
U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
July 17, 2012-Chairman Bernanke presented identical remarks before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives on July 18, 2012
Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Shelby, and other members of the Committee, I am pleased to present the Federal Reserve's semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress. I will begin with a discussion of current economic conditions and the outlook before turning to monetary policy.
The Economic Outlook
The U.S. economy has continued to recover, but economic activity appears to have decelerated somewhat during the first half of this year. After rising at an annual rate of 2-1/2 percent in the second half of 2011, real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 2 percent pace in the first quarter of 2012, and available indicators point to a still-smaller gain in the second quarter.
view the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress
Source: Federal Reserve
Vanguard strikes back against ..Bogle?
A new study refutes founder's concerns that exchange-traded funds encourage excessive trading
July 17, 2012--The Vanguard Group Inc. released a study today that refutes the concerns of founder John Bogle and others that exchange-traded funds encourage excessive trading, which is bad for long-term investors.
Vanguard looked at more than 36,000 ETF positions and more than 500,000 mutual fund positions in its Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI), Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (BND), Vanguard Emerging Markets Index Fund (VWO) and Vanguard REIT Index Fund (VNQ) from 2007 through 2011. Vanguard's ETFs are share classes of its mutual funds, which is unique.
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Source: Investment News
US senator opposes JPM's copper ETF plan
July 17, 2012--U.S. regulators should block JPMorgan Chase & Co's plan for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) physically backed by copper because it would create a boom and bust cycle in the market, according to U.S. Senator Carl Levin.
Levin outlined his opposition in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing the proposed product would disrupt supply and inflate prices by removing a significant chunk of material from the market.
"There is ample evidence that if the ETF shares are listed and traded on the NYSE exchange, the trust will disrupt the global supply of copper," the Democrat from Michigan said in his letter dated July 16.
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Source: Bloomberg
Bernanke: Gloomy on economy, few hints of QE3
July 17, 2012--Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave senators a rather gloomy outlook for the economy Tuesday.
Europe's debt crisis and fiscal cliff in the United States are threatening the recovery, he told the Senate Banking Committee in his semi-annual report to Congress. Meanwhile, economic growth has probably already slowed, and the unemployment rate is unlikely to fall below 7% for at least another year.
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Source: CNN
ShariahShares Serves Muslims' Investment Needs
July 17, 2012--About two in seven people on the planet are Muslim. At about 6.5 million people, Muslims account for about 2% of the U.S. population.
Saied Hamedanchi believes they're an underserved niche market in the investment industry.
As founder and CEO of Irvine, Calif.-based ShariahShares, Hamedanchi is developing ETFs that invest according to Shariah law or the moral codes of Islam. The $77 billion in Shariah mutual funds currently are merely a speck among the trillions invested in the market.
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Source: newsinvestors.com
BlackRock's iShares bets cheap isn't better for ETFs
July 17, 2012--BlackRock Inc, the largest global exchange-traded fund provider, has been aggressive in its efforts to maintain U.S. market share but has still found itself losing ground to a cheaper, smaller rival.
Since January, its San Francisco-based iShares ETF unit has started 42 ETFs and has at least 20 more planned this year. Its executives have been out front on regulatory issues and calls for more transparency in ETF labeling and the increasingly popular ETF managed portfolio space.
But, one thing iShares has refused to do is cut costs to compete with rivals like Vanguard, whose ETFs, in some cases cost as little as a third of their iShares equivalents.
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Source: Reuters