Global ETF News Older than One Year
ETF 20/20 Trends: Swiss 'Shockolates' & The Eurozone Deflation Threat
February 6, 2015--Key Highlights
Our monthly 'ETF 20/20' report summarizes recent Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) trends in the US, using data from the First Bridge global ETF database.
US ETF assets fell inJan 2015 to $1.984T, due to the combination of a market decline and net outflows in US equities
Preliminary estimates from Eurostat indicate that price declines in the Eurozone accelerated in Jan 2015, raising the likelihood of further monetary stimulus
January 2015 was a month of significant volatility in currency ETFs. The Swiss Franc appreciated dramatically against the Euro and USD on Jan 15, when the Swiss National Bank abandoned its policy of pegging the Franc to the Euro.
The year started with a rare month to month decline in the number of US listed ETFs, with 23 closures and 13 launches.
Low volatility outperformed other US equity strategies both in January and the trailing 12 months.
Indian & Chinese equity and long duration bond ETFs were the best performing, while Russian, Greek and energy ETFs were the worst performing in the trailing 12 months.
Source: First Bridge Data
SPDR University Weekly Market Report-
February 6, 2015-ECONOMIES: Manufacturing is lackluster around the G7. Employment rises robustly in the US. Unemployment falls in Canada. The Bank of England leaves policy unchanged. Factory orders jump in Germany. Wage inflation appears to be accelerating modestly in
Japan. The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts its policy rate.
MARKETS: Risk appetites seem to get a boost from the bounce in oil prices. Equities and G7 government bond yields are mostly higher. US and UK yields jump. USD is broadly weaker.
NEXT WEEK PREVIEWED
SPOTLIGHT: Another weak headline is expected for retail sales in the US. GDP likely posts at best anemic gains for Germany, France, Italy and the overall eurozone. Home prices are expected to post another solid gain in Australia.
ECONOMIES: Manufacturing is lackluster around the G7. Employment rises robustly in the US. Unemployment falls in Canada. The Bank of England leaves policy unchanged. Factory orders jump in Germany. Wage inflation appears to be accelerating modestly in Japan. The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts its policy rate.
Source: SPDR University
FTSE Expands Infrastructure Index Series With Two Capped Indices
February 5, 2015--FTSE Group, the global index provider, has announced the expansion of its established FTSE Infrastructure Index Series with the launch of two capped indices to complement the FTSE Core Infrastructure Indices: FTSE Global Core Infrastructure Capped 50/50 Index and FTSE Developed Core Infrastructure Capped 50/50 Index.
The expansion of the index series is in response to increased interest in this relatively young asset class, led by institutional investors diversifying into real assets such as infrastructure and real estate.
Source: Ftse Global Markets
BIS-Credit risk management across sectors-report released by the Joint Forum
February 5, 2015--Today the Joint Forum released its report Developments in credit risk management across sectors: current practices and recommendations.
The Joint Forum surveyed supervisors and firms in the banking, securities and insurance sectors globally in order to understand the current state of credit risk management given the significant market and regulatory changes since the 2008 financial crisis. Fifteen supervisors and 23 firms from Europe, North America and Asia responded to the survey.
Source: BIS
FTSEangle.com: Welcome to Global Indices and Global Insights from FTSE
February 5, 2015--One of the fastest growing areas of passive investing focuses on investment products designed using alternatively weighted and factor exposure indices-sometimes called ˝smart beta-that differ in essential ways from traditional capitalization-weighting.
This innovative new generation of indices come in a wide range of different types and styles with often subtle but important differences that offer users alternative index approaches to the control of risk and access to returns.
Source: FTSE
BATS Global Markets January 2015 Update: Record U.S. Options Market Share of 8.8%; Reports 24.2% European Equities Market Share; Completes Direct Edge Integration
February 4, 2015--BATS Global Markets (BATS) today reported January volume, market share, and monthly highlights including record market share for BATS Options of 8.8% and one of its strongest months on record in European equities with 24.2% market share.
The 8.8% record for BATS Options in January was up from 6.3% in December 2014 and 3.3% one year ago. BATS Options also set a one-day market share record of 10.4% on January 28. In January, BATS Options reported 10 days where market share topped 9.0%, a new record for the growing business.
Source: BATS Global Markets, Inc.
DMS-Deciphering Developing Markets-Greek Uncertainty Could Cause Larger Issues Within the European Union
February 3, 2015--The internet is awash with article upon article pushing one side and then the other about not only the Greek election results, but what the election of the far left party Syriza means to the unity of Europe.
It appears, at least for now, that the Greek exit from the Euro, or "Grexit," is off the table. At least that’s what the Greeks would like. There are many parties that expressed interest in the outcome of the election, but none more than the nationalist movements in Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and dare I say it, Russia.
Source: Peter Kohli of DMS for Nasdaq.com
White Paper-The Significance of the Trading Range for Asset Prices & Influencing Factors
February 3, 2015--Ask any investor which two emotional forces drive a market, and he or she will most likely answer, "Fear and Greed." They know this because at some point every investor has had these two emotions affect his or her investing decisions.
Fear and greed work in tandem as the strongest influencing factors of market-based asset pricing. During periods of rising prices, the fear of not wanting to be left behind coupled with the greed of needing to profit from rising prices, causes investors to bid-up asset values. The compounding effect of the herd instinct joins fear and greed to further stimulate market prices, often times to excess and sometimes creating asset bubbles.
Source: Stephen McKay
ETF Securities Research-Precious Metals Weekly-The January 2015 landscape is much changed from a year ago
February 2, 2015--Many of the facts have clearly changed from January 2014. Led by the 5.7% weekly decline in silver, precious metals (PMs) pared 2015 gains last week. Year-to-date most PMs have posted positive returns however. Currency volatility has been a key supportive factor, as exemplified by the price of gold in Euro terms which increased 16.2% in January,
recording its' largest monthly gain in the history of the common currency1
Some say currency wars are accelerating but it appears individual central banks are simply attempting to fight off deflationary forces. In Q1 2014, gold in USD had a similar sharp start to the year from similar levels (around US$1,200/oz.), but the landscape is much changed. Bond yields were widely expected to increase early in 2014. Developed nation (DN) sovereign bond yields currently are in a free fall. Ten European countries have negative 2yr note yields and appear to be increasingly sustainable. The SNB has thrown in the towel in trying to support the Euro and the ECB has committed to providing liquidity until inflation is firmly in place.
Source: ETF Securities Research
McKinsey Global Institute-Debt and (not much) deleveraging
February 2, 2015--Seven years after the bursting of a global credit bubble resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, debt continues to grow. In fact, rather than reducing indebtedness, or deleveraging, all major economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP than they did in 2007.
Global debt in these years has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of debt to GDP by 17 percentage points.
A new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report, Debt and (not much) deleveraging, examines the evolution of debt across 47 countries-22 advanced and 25 developing-and assesses the implications of higher leverage in the global economy and in specific sectors and countries. The analysis, which follows our July 2011 report Debt and deleveraging: The global credit bubble and its economic consequences and our January 2012 report Debt and deleveraging: Uneven progress on the path to growth, focuses on the debt of the "real economy": governments, nonfinancial corporations, and households. It finds that debt-to-GDP ratios have risen in all 22 advanced economies in the sample, by more than 50 percentage points in many cases.
view the McKinsey Global Institute report-Debt and (not much) deleveraging
Source: McKinsey Global Institute
