Global ETF News Older than One Year
Winthrop Capital-2015 Economic and Capital Market Outlook
January 9, 2015--The domestic economy is growing at 3.0% to 3.5% pace. The budget deficit is plummeting and currently is less than 2.8% of GDP. The price of oil is in a freefall now below $55 per barrel and inflation is virtually nonexistent. The rate of unemployment is below 6.0%. These are idyllic conditions for any economy, especially five years after the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. So, what's the problem?
The problem is that the U.S. economy today is being propped up by aggressive monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. We are in the sixth year of a global expansion, and we are effectively still expanding the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet to support economic growth. Normally, that would end in the third year of an expansion. However, drastic times call for drastic measures and the severity of the Financial Crisis required the Fed to implement new tools to support commerce and capitalism.
Source: Winthrop Capital Management
Winthrop Capital-2015 Economic and Capital Market Outlook
January 9, 2015--The domestic economy is growing at 3.0% to 3.5% pace. The budget deficit is plummeting and currently is less than 2.8% of GDP. The price of oil is in a freefall now below $55 per barrel and inflation is virtually nonexistent. The rate of unemployment is below 6.0%. These are idyllic conditions for any economy, especially five years after the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. So, what's the problem?
The problem is that the U.S. economy today is being propped up by aggressive monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. We are in the sixth year of a global expansion, and we are effectively still expanding the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet to support economic growth. Normally, that would end in the third year of an expansion. However, drastic times call for drastic measures and the severity of the Financial Crisis required the Fed to implement new tools to support commerce and capitalism.
Source: Winthrop Capital Management
FTSE Studying Include Companies With Primary Listings Overseas
Move Could Provide Boost For Stocks Including Chinese Internet Companies Such as Alibaba
January 9, 2015-Index provider FTSE has begun preliminary studies into whether it will include companies with primary listings outside of their home countries into its biggest benchmarks, potentially providing a boost for stocks including Chinese Internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. which are traded on U.S. exchanges.
The index provider is assessing whether to include companies which trade overseas, but lack a domestic listing, in its global-equity index series.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Most Developing Countries Will Benefit from Oil Price Slump, Says World Bank Group
January 7, 2015--Gains from low oil prices can be substantial for developing-country importers if supported by stronger global growth, says a World Bank Group analysis of the oil price decline, contained in the latest edition of Global Economic Prospects.
The decline in oil prices reflects a confluence of factors, including several years of upward surprises in oil supply and downward surprises in demand, receding geopolitical risks in some areas of the world, a significant change in policy objectives of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and appreciation of the U.S. dollar. Although the relative strength of the forces driving the recent plunge in prices remains uncertain, supply related factors appear to have played a dominant role.
Source: World Bank
Developing Countries Need To Rebuild Fiscal Space to Weather Growth Slowdowns, Says a New Report by the World Bank Group
January 7, 2015--Faced with weaker export prospects, an impending rise in global interest rates, and fragile financial market sentiment, developing countries need to rebuild fiscal buffers to support economic activity in case of a growth slowdown, says the new edition of Global Economic Prospects, released today by the World Bank Group.
For many developing economies, lower oil prices have provided a timely opportunity for doing so.
view the Having Fiscal Space and Using It-Fiscal Policy Challenges in Developing Economies
Source: World Bank
Variable-capital SCPIs invested in commercial property will be introduced into the EDHEC IEIF Commercial Property (France) Index from January 1,2015
January 6, 2015--In order to take account of the increasing proportion of variable-capital SCPIs (Société Civile de Placement Immobilier or real estate investment company) invested in commercial property, the EDHEC IEIF Commercial Property (France) Index will include them in its universe from January 1, 2015.
There is no change to the index composition rules: only SCPIs that have recorded trading volume of more than 2 million euros on the secondary market during the previous year will be included.
Source: EDHEC-Risk Institute
Not just oil: Are lower commodity prices here to stay?
January 6, 2015--Oil isn't the only commodity that's gotten cheaper.
From nickel to soybean oil, plywood to sugar, global commodity prices have been on a steady decline as the world's economy has lost momentum. That lower demand helps explain, in part, why nearly everything from crude oil to cotton has been getting cheaper.
Source: CNBC
Gold great value protector in 2014- silver not
Perhaps we should look at gold in currencies-other than the US dollar-to see its real worth as a value protector over the past year.
January 5, 2015--LBMA Gold price end 2013: US$1 201.50; Gold price end 2014: $1 199.25-only down a minute 0.19% over the year.
Thus, by effectively marking time vis-á-vis the US dollar over the full year gold outperformed virtually all other currencies in maintenance of value.
Source: MineWeb
BlackRock Sets Record with $102.8B in ETF Flows in 2014
January 5, 2015--Investors poured $102.8 billion in new money into BlackRock Inc's exchange-traded funds in 2014, setting a record in global flows for the iShares ETF business, the company said on Monday.
The inflows into BlackRock accounted for 31 percent of the total $330.7 billion in new money added to the global ETF market in 2014 as investors flocked to the low-cost, index-tracking funds. Global ETF assets now stand at more than $2.7 trillion.
Source: Fox Business News
IMF Working paper-Shedding Light on Shadow Banking
January 5, 2015--Summary: In this paper, we develop an alternative approach to estimate the size of the shadow banking system, using official data reported to the IMF complemented by other data sources.
We base our alternative approach on the expansion of the noncore liabilities concept developed in recent literature to encompass all noncore liabilities of both bank and nonbank financial institutions. As opposed to existing measures of shadow banking, our newly developed measures capture nontraditional funding raised by traditional banks. We apply the new approach to 26 jurisdictions and analyze the results over a twelve-year span. We find that noncore liabilities are procyclical and display more volatility than core liabilities for most jurisdictions in the sample. We also compare our measures to existing measures, such as the measure developed by the Financial Stability Board. Our approach can be replicated over time using internationally-comparable data and thus may serve as an operational tool for IMF surveillance and policy analysis.
view the IMF Working paper-Shedding Light on Shadow Banking
Source: IMF
