Global ETF News Older than One Year
Bitcoin plummets below $3,000 on rising China worries
September 15, 2017--Bitcoin dropped below $3,000 on Friday as the cryptocurrency extended a brutal eight-day sell-off that has reduced its value against the dollar by a third.
The currency traded as low as $2,,972, marking a 36 per cent fall from bitcoin's close on September 7, and a collapse of 40 per cent from the highs struck earlier this month.
Source: FT.com
G20 GDP Growth-Second quarter of 2017, OECD-G20 GDP growth accelerates to 0.9% in second quarter of 2017
September 14, 2017--Growth of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the G20 area* accelerated to 0.9% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 0.8% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates.
Growth picked up strongly in Turkey, to 2.1% (as compared with 1.3% in the first quarter of 2017), the highest quarterly growth among G20 economies. Real GDP also increased significantly in China (by 1.7%, compared with 1.3% in the previous quarter), South Africa (by 0.6%, following a contraction of 0.1%) and in Australia and the United States (by 0.8%, compared with 0.3% in the previous quarter). Growth also picked up, although to a lesser extent, in India (to 1.4%, from 1.3%), Canada (to 1.1%, from 0.9%), Japan (to 0.6%, from 0.3%), and the United Kingdom (to 0.3%, from 0.2%).
Growth remained stable in Indonesia (1.2%), France (0.5%) and Italy (0.4%), while it slowed markedly in Brazil (to 0.2%, from 1.0%) and Korea (to 0.6%, from 1.1%). Growth also weakened in Germany and Mexico (to 0.6%, from 0.7%).
Source: OECD
Infographic-Comparing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Other Cryptos
September 13, 2017--Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you're probably aware that we're in the middle of a cryptocurrency explosion
In one year, the value of all currencies increased a staggering 1,466%-and newer coins like Ethereum have even joined Bitcoin in gaining some mainstream acceptance.
Source: visualcapitalist.com
IMF-Increasing Resilience to Large and Volatile Capital Flows: The Role of Macroprudential Policies-Case Studies
September 13, 2017--View the IMF Policy paper-Increasing Resilience to Large and Volatile Capital Flows: The Role of Macroprudential Policies-Case Studies.
Source: IMF
Global Talent Crisis Lies at Heart of Inequality Debate
September 13, 2017--The Human Capital Report 2017 finds countries' failure to adequately develop people's talents is underpinning inequality by depriving people of opportunity and access to a broad base of good-quality work
Investments in education often fail due to inadequate focus on lifelong learning, failure to develop high-skilled opportunities and a mismatch of skills required for entering and succeeding in the labour market
With only 62% of the world's human capital stock fully developed, the United States and Germany are among the best-performing nations in a top 10 dominated by smaller European countries
Efforts to fully realize people's economic potential-in countries at all stages of economic development- are falling short due to ineffective deployment of skills throughout the workforce, development of future skills and adequate promotion of ongoing learning for those already in employment.
view the World Economic Forum-The Global Human Capital Report 2017
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
ETF Securities-Precious Metals Monitor--August 2017-Gold & Silver: Risk-Off Sentiment Amid Volatility Adds Further Support
September 13, 2017--The macroeconomic environment year to date has been positive for gold and silver with the US dollar dropping nearly 10%, interest rates falling to lows not seen since November 2016, and inflation remaining persistently elevated.
This environment, while likely to remain supportive for gold, has been met with the catalyst of event risk driven demand. This August was full of events traditionally benefitting metals including geopolitical tensions with North Korea, political uncertainty in Washington, and static monetary policy as evidenced by the dovish commentary from both Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium (pushing market expectations for another US rate hike in 2017 down to 33%). These event risks may continue to be the key driver for gold and silver in the short term as investors attempt to navigate risk-off headlines and heightened volatility.
Source: ETF Securities
OPEC-Monthly Oil Market Report September 2017
September 12, 2017--Oil Market Highlights
Crude Oil Price Movements
The OPEC Reference Basket rose for the second-consecutive month in August to average $49.60/b,
representing a gain of $2.67/b or 6%. Year-to-date, the Basket was 30.9% higher at $49.73/b. Crude futures
prices also saw gains with ICE Brent increasing 5.5% to $51.87/b and NYMEX WTI up 3.0% at $48.06/b.
Year-to-date, crude futures prices were more than 20% higher. During the week of 29 August money managers cut WTI futures and options net long positions by 105,671 contracts to 147,303 lots, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said. Money managers slightly reduced Brent futures and options net length contracts by 1,296 to 416,551 lots during the same week.
World Economy
World economic growth has been revised up for 2017 to 3.5% from 3.4%, while the growth forecast for 2018
remains unchanged at 3.4%. OECD growth has performed better-than-anticipated in the current year-
particularly the Euro-zone and to some extent in the US – and is now forecast to grow by 2.2% in 2017 and
2.0% in 2018.
Source: OPEC
PWC-Live digital or die-The digital challenges that ETF sponsors and service providers must confront
September 12, 2017--Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) continue to experience significant growth and innovation. We expect that continued
advances in digital technologies will significantly impact ETF
sponsors, service providers and other participants.
We foresee technological change driving significant impacts upon ETF operations, distribution and products. These changes will also impact a firm's profit margins, regulatory risks, cyber security, and customer interactions. There is no question that successful firms will need to evolve rapidly to keep ahead of their competition.
This paper leverages the results of our ETF global survey and includes our insights on how the ETF industry will be impacted by FinTech over the next few years.
Source: PWC
ETF Securities-ETF Outlook September 2017
September 12, 2017--Bond balloon, not bubble
Artificially low market volatility
Across asset classes, volatility has moderated, and the underlying macro landscape has improved on a global basis, prompting greater investor optimism.
Political uncertainty has also moderated, with two key exceptions: the Trump administration and the Brexit negotiations. Risk and the implied complacency of investors that low volatility presumes are key issues in financial markets, the current 'risk-on' environment where equity markets are reaching record highs looks increasingly untenable.
Source: etfsecurities.com
Infographic-Market Complexity Could Trigger the Next Crash
September 12, 2017--Complex systems are all around us.
By one definition, a complex system is any system that features a large number of interacting components (agents, processes, etc.) whose aggregate activity is nonlinear (not derivable from the summations of the activity of individual components) and typically exhibits hierarchical self-organization under selective pressures.
Source: visualcapitalist.com
