Global ETF News Older than One Year
WEF-Millennials Survey: 'Refugees Are Welcome, Robots Can't Be Trusted, Climate Change Is Our Biggest Concern'
August 30, 2017--More than 31,000 millennials from over 180 countries have participated in the Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017 on technology, economy, values, career and governance.
Climate change is keeping millennials up at night: it remains their biggest global concern for the third year in a row.
Corruption, inequality and a lack of career and economic opportunities are seen as the most pressing national issues by millennials around the globe.
Optimism beats pessimism: technology is creating more jobs than it is destroying, say 79%. However, only 26% would trust a robot to make decisions on their behalf.
The United States (18%), Canada (12%) and the UK (10%) are the top destinations of young people looking to advance their career.
view the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
IMF Working paper-Emissions and Growth: Trends and Cycles in a Globalized World
August 30, 2017--Summary:
Recent discussions of the extent of decoupling between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and real gross domestic product (GDP) provide mixed evidence and have generated much debate. We show that to get a clear picture of decoupling it is important to distinguish cycles from trends: there is an Environmental Okun's Law (a cyclical relationship between emissions and real GDP) that often obscures the trend relationship between emissions and real GDP.
We show that, once the cyclical relationship is accounted for, the trends show evidence of decoupling in richer nations—particularly in European countries, but not yet in emerging markets. The picture changes somewhat, however, if we take into consideration the effects of international trade, that is, if we distinguish between production-based and consumption-based emissions. Once we add in their net emission transfers, the evidence for decoupling among the richer countries gets weaker. The good news is that countries with underlying policy frameworks more supportive of renewable energy and supportive of climate change tend to have greater decoupling between trend emissions and trend GDP, and for both production- and consumption-based emissions.
view the IMF Working paper-Emissions and Growth: Trends and Cycles in a Globalized World
Source: IMF
Finance & Development-Bretton Woods to Brexit
August 30, 2017--The global economic cooperation that has held sway since the end of World War II is challenged by new political forces
The British vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States have brought a new style of politics-not just in the United Kingdom or the United States, but for the world.
The developments of 2016 constitute a major challenge to the liberal international order constructed after the defeat of Nazism in 1945 and strengthened and renewed after the collapse of the Soviet system between 1989 and 1991.
Source: IMF
Kik Announces Highly Anticipated Token Distribution Event
August 29, 2017--Kik Interactive, the creator of the popular chat platform Kik, today announced Kin's upcoming token distribution event (TDE) will commence on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. ET.
Kik also announced it has successfully closed a presale round of US$50 million to select accredited investors, including Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital. Kik will look to raise a total of US$125 million through its token sale.
Source: Kik Interactive
Moody's says G20 GDP growth to exceed 3 percent, warns of geopolitical risks
August 29, 2017--Moody's Investors Service kept its forecast for G20 economic growth at just over 3 percent for this year and next, but warned of geopolitical risks, U.S. protectionism and spillovers from global monetary tightening and China's deleveraging measures.
The ratings agency said surprisingly strong data in the first half of the year prompted it to raise 2017 growth forecasts for China to 6.8 percent from 6.6 percent, for South Korea to 2.8 percent from 2.5 percent, and for Japan to 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent. view more
Source: Reuters
In a Blast From a Financial Crisis Past, Synthetic CDOs Are Back
August 28, 2017--Market for collateralized debt obligations is on the rise again after years on the decline
A decade ago, investors' bad bets on collateralized debt obligations helped fuel the crisis. Billed as safe, they turned out to be anything but. Now, more investors are returning to CDOs-and so are concerns that excess is seeping into the aging bull market.
Source: Wall Street Journal
ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis-Agriculture ETPs standout during the summer doldrums
August 28, 2017--Coffee recorded the largest weekly inflows since May 2015.
Crude oil ETPs recorded outflows for the sixth consecutive week as prices near US$50/bbl.
Nickel recorded outflows of US$11m for the week and US$25 for the month on likely profit taking.
Minor moves in fund flows in comparison to previous weeks due to the summer doldrums.
The summer doldrums have been taking a toll on the volume of flows last week. In precious metals, which are particularly sensitive to comments from central bankers, prices have remained steady as investors waited for any hints from them at the Jackson Hole meeting on Friday. Consequently inflows have been have been minimal, with US$8.8m in gold ETPs. Despite the threat of interest rate hikes there have been net flows of US$338m year-to-date in gold ETPs with outflows in short positioning, suggesting investors aren't worried about any significant downside risks for gold in the immediate future.
Source: etfsecurities.com
OECD GDP growth accelerates to 0.7% in second quarter of 2017
August 28, 2017--Quarterly growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area accelerated to 0.7% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates.
Among the Major Seven economies, in the second quarter of 2017, GDP growth accelerated strongly in Japan (to 1.0%, compared with 0.4% in the previous quarter) and the United States (to 0.6%, compared with 0.3%), while only slightly in the United Kingdom (to 0.3%, compared with 0.2%).
Growth was stable in France and Italy (at 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively), while it slowed marginally in Germany (to 0.6%, compared with 0.7% in the previous quarter).
In the European Union and the euro area growth picked up marginally to 0.6% (from 0.5%).
Year-on-year GDP growth for the OECD area accelerated to 2.4% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 2.1% in the previous quarter. Among the Major Seven economies, Germany, Japan and the United States recorded the highest annual growth rate (2.1%), while Italy recorded the lowest growth (1.5%).
Source: OECD
Risk of sharp currency moves drives investors into hedged ETFs
August 25, 2017--Investors have been piling into currency-hedged equity tracker funds, seeking protection against big moves in foreign exchange rates.
Typically foreign investors buy un-hedged equities since share prices are usually negatively correlated to currencies. In fact, they offer a partial hedge against sharp moves in foreign exchange.
Source: Reuters
ULTUMUS-Bonds, PIR & Low Risk-a smorgasbord of listings
August 25, 2017--Asia
Korea
Koomkim Bank has listed a new ETF in Seoul that tracks the S&P Asia 50 Index (277540). The index is made up of stocks from Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. 277540 is not the first ETF to track this benchmark; iShares has a similar product in the US (AIA)....
Korea Investment & Securities is listing two new covered call ETNs in Seoul (570020, 570021). 570020 tracks the KOSPI Short Futures Short Put Index, meaning it will make more money if the KOSPI declines....
China
China's Goutai Asset Management has launched a new long-dated bond ETF, called the SSE 10-year T-bond ETF (511260)..
Europe
France
Amundi's PIR tax ETF lists in Paris this week (ITALI). The PIR tax was introduced this year by the Italian government....Lyxor, the first issuer to act on this, has seen huge inflows into its PIR product.
Germany
BNP Paribas will be listing a new commodities ETF into Germany and France that tracks a basket of precious and industrial metals, together with oil and gas (EMEH)...
UK
iShares will be listing its $ Floating Rate Bond ETF in two more forms next month. Floating rate bonds "float" with interest rates, meaning the coupons they pay rise and fall with central bank's interest rates.
One will be a simple re-listing of FLOT in GBP (FLOS).
The other listed product will be FLO5.
iShares will also be listing its emerging markets government debt tracker in London, which will track the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index (JPEE). The main governments whose bonds are tracked are: Argentina, Russia, Turkey and the Philipines, as well as a score of others...
North America
Canada
First Asset will be launching a Canadian dollar hedged ETF into Toronto (RWX) tracking lower risk equities. RWX will physically track the MSCI EAFE Risk Weighted Top 175 Index...
Source: ULTUMUS-Financial Data Management
