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Middlefield Expands ETF Platform
March 18, 2019--Middlefield Group is pleased to announce the expansion of its ETF platform with the proposed conversion of Middlefield Healthcare & Wellness Dividend Fund ("Wellness Fund"")
Middlefield Group is pleased to announce the expansion of its ETF platform with the proposed conversion of Middlefield Healthcare & Wellness Dividend Fund ("Wellness Fund") (TSX: HWF.UN) and American Core Sectors Dividend Fund ("Core Fund") (TSX: ACZ.UN), collectively referred to as the "Conversions".
In keeping with our objective of providing value-added solutions to investors and financial advisors, these additions to our ETF platform represent unique, actively managed strategies which investors would have difficulty replicating with passive investment products.
view Horizons ETFs Rebalances the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF view more Lipper U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Fixed Income Funds Drive Overall Net Inflows for the Week
Market Overview
view more CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update The Effect of Government Debt on Interest Rates: Working Paper 2019-01 view the The Effect of Government Debt on Interest Rates White paper John Hancock Investments Launches John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF Completing its Multifactor Sector ETF Suite
view more Blue Star Indexes-Israeli Stocks Maintain Outperformance vs. Major Market Indexes in 2019; Israeli Tech Hits New All-Time High; Cyber and Real Estate Continue to Shine view more
USCF Announces Options Trading on the United States 3x Oil Fund and the United States 3x Short Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USOU, USOD) view more Brazil: Boom, Bust, and Road to Recovery view more CBOE Will Not List Bitcoin Futures in March, Cites Need to Assess Crypto Derivatives view more
Source: American Core Sectors Dividend Fund
March 18, 2019--Quarterly rebalance includes a leading U.S.-based CBD producer
Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") has completed the quarterly rebalance of the constituent holdings of the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF ("HMMJ:TSX").
HMMJ is the world's first ETF offering direct exposure to North American-listed securities that are involved with marijuana bioengineering and production. Once again, the ETF has added additional companies to its portfolio as more firms have become eligible for inclusion in its underlying index-the North American Marijuana Index.
Source: Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
March 15, 2019--Lipper's fund asset groups (including both mutual funds and ETFs) had net inflows of slightly less than $3.0 billion for the fund-flows trading week ended Wednesday, March 13. Fixed income funds led the net positive flows as taxable bond funds and municipal debt funds grew their coffers by $2.6 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.
Equity funds contributed $891 million to the total net inflows, while money market funds suffered net outflows of $2.2 billion.
The major equity indices all recorded positive returns for the fund-flows trading week. The NASDAQ Composite paced the increases at 1.83%, while the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 1.42% and 0.11%, respectively.
Source: Refinitiv
March 15, 2019--The current reports for the week of March 15, 2019 are now available.
view more
Source: CFTC.gov
March 14, 2019--On average over the long term, each increase of 1 percentage point in federal debt as a percentage of GDP boosts interest rates by 2 to 3 basis points, CBO estimates.
Summary
Under current law, the level of federal debt relative to gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to rise significantly over the next decade. The relationship between debt and interest rates plays a key role in the Congressional Budget Office's economic and budget projections (especially long-term projections) and for dynamic analyses of fiscal policy, where the sensitivity of interest rates with respect to changes in the level of debt is vitally important. In this analysis, we use a reduced-form regression to estimate the relationship between projected federal debt and expected long-term interest rates. Our results suggest that the average long-run effect of debt on interest rates ranges from about 2 to 3 basis points for each increase of 1 percentage point in debt as a percentage of GDP. We also use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to illustrate how the response of interest rates to debt depends on the type of fiscal policy generating changes in the debt. In the context of that model, fiscal policies that bolster incentives for households and firms to invest in private capital or supply additional labor elicit a smaller interest rate response than the response suggested by the reduced-form estimates, which do not control for the nature of the fiscal policy change. Conversely, the results suggest that a fiscal policy that contains few or no incentives for households and firms to invest in additional private capital or supply additional labor elicits a larger interest rate response than that suggested by the reduced-form estimates.
Source: Edward Gamber and John Seliski Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
March 13, 2019--John Hancock Multifactor ETF Designed by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Provides Access to Companies in the New Communication Services Sector
John Hancock Investments today announced the John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF (nyse arca:JHCS) began trading on March 13, 2019.
The fund seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the John Hancock Dimensional Media and Communications Index designed by Dimensional Fund Advisors. JHCS follows the recently revised sector classification scheme that expanded or replaced the narrowly defined telecommunication services sector with a broader mix of media, communications, and technology companies. This expanded definition of telecommunications has been embraced by multiple index providers, including MSCI, S&P, and FTSE Russell.
Source: John Hancock
March 14, 2019--Israel Equity Review & Outlook-March2019
Israeli stocks, as defined by the BlueStar Israel Global Index(R) (BIGI(R)), outpaced all major market indexes in January, posting a solid 10.68% gain. BIGI(R), now nearly recovered from the December sell-off, extended its 2018 dominance against MSCI EAFE by an additional 4.09% YTD.
Israeli technology stocks, as defined by The BlueStar Israel Global Technology IndexTM (BIGITech(R)), bounced back strongly in January, erasing December woes, with an impressive 11.48% return to lead global tech markets YTD.
BIGI(R) outperformed the local TA-125 Index by 1.53% in January, as the TA-125 has missed out on the performance of some of Israel's top foreign-listed technology companies.
After a sharp bounce off the long-term support lines, the technical outlook for BIGI(R) is currently neutral; BIGITech(R) is well poised to resume an upward trend in 2019.
Source: BlueStar Indexes
March 14, 2019--USCF today announced the availability of options trading on the United States 3x Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USOU) and the United States 3x Short Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USOD) on NYSE American Options. Both USOU and USOD are exchange-traded products that are designed to reflect 3x and-3x, respectively, the daily price movements of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light, sweet crude oil.
Both issue shares that may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca. The investment objective of each of USOU and USOD is for the daily changes in percentage terms of its shares' NAV to reflect 3x and -3x, respectively, the daily changes in percentage terms of a specified short-term futures contract on light, sweet crude oil called the "Benchmark Oil Futures Contract," less expenses. Each fund will seek a return that is 300% or -300% of the return of the Benchmark Oil Futures Contract for a single day and does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective over a period of time greater than one day.
Source: USCF
March 14, 2019--Summary:
Brazil is at crossroads, emerging slowly from a historic recession that was preceded by a huge economic boom. Reasons for the historic bust following a boom are manifold.
Policy mistakes were an important contributory factor, and included the pursuit of countercyclical policies, introduced to deal with the effects of the global financial crisis, beyond the point where they were helpful. More fundamentally, it reflects longstanding structural weaknesses plaguing the economy, that also help explain Brazil's uninspiring growth performance over the past four decades.
Source: IMF
March 14, 2019--The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will not add a new Bitcoin (BTC) futures market in March, the firm said in a statement on March 14.
Per the statement, CBOE is re-evaluating how it approaches trading digital assets.
Source: cointelegraph.com
