Americas ETP News
If your looking for specific news, using the search function will narrow down the results
Report On Foreign Portfolio Holdings Of U.S. Securities
April 30, 2012--The final results from the annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2011 are released today on the U.S. Treasury web site. A revised table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, through end-February 2012, is also released.
This survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The next survey will be for end-June 2012 and preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2013.
Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually. Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held at year-end 2011, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 31, 2012.
Overall Results
The survey measured foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2011, to be $12,440 billion, with $3,830 billion held in U.S. equities, $7,731 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities1 (of which $1,140 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) 2 and $6,591 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $878 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities. The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2010, measured total foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at $10,691 billion, with holdings of $2,814 billion in U.S. equities, $6,921 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $956 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities .
view the Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities update
view the Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, through end-February 2012 table
Source: US Department of the Treasury
Open-End Investment Funds in the US Industry Market Research Report Now Available from IBISWorld
April 30, 2012--While assets under management (AUM) have fluctuated since 2006, the industry continues to be concerned with reduced fees. Capital markets depreciated dramatically during the five years to 2012 as high unemployment led to less income and investment savings, while recessionary cuts in company dividends and defined-contribution employee matching exacerbated the downturn.
Rebounding capital markets and renewed company dividends at the end of the five-year period will support industry growth. For these reasons, industry research firm IBISWorld has added a report on the Open-End Investment Funds industry to its growing industry report collection.
read more
Source: IBIS World
Celent and Moody's predict further ETF growth
April 27, 2012--The exchange traded funds industry is poised for further growth in 2012 and beyond, according to a pair of reports published this week by Celent, the research consultancy, and Moody's Investors Services, the ratings agency.
New rules and regulations should be a net positive for the ETF industry, according to Moody’s ETF Industry Overview report, which said that the harmonisation of product labelling and increased disclosure and reporting was a “necessary and logical next step”.
read more
Source: FT.com
Horizons ETFs Announces ETF Closures
April 27, 2012 --Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") and its affiliate Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (the "Manager") announced today that it will be terminating certain exchange traded funds ("ETFs") effective at the close of business on Friday June 29, 2012.
The ETFs being terminated (collectively, the "Terminated ETFs") are as follows:
Horizons BetaPro COMEX® Long Gold/Short Silver Spread ETF (HBZ)
Horizons BetaPro COMEX® Long Silver/Short Gold Spread ETF (HZB)
read more
Source: Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc.
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
April 27, 2012--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
The shares of Pan Terra Industries Inc. (TSXVN:PNT) will trade under the new name Kombat Copper Inc. in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of Friday, April 27, 2012.
The new ticker symbol will be "KBT" and the new CUSIP number will be 50045T 10 8. There is no consolidation of capital.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poor's
Maple offer for TMX on knife edge
April 27, 2012-Another potential big stock exchange deal could soon be history. A group of Canadian banks and pension funds have said they may not extend their C$3.8bn ($3.7bn) offer to buy TMX Group, the country's largest exchange operator, past a deadline on Monday, citing a continued stiff regulatory review.
That review may still be resolved favourably for the group, with antitrust authorities saying that some of the changes requested by securities regulators could ease their concerns.
read moe
Source: FT.com
National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 1st quarter 2012
(advance estimate)
April 27, 2012--Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.
The Bureau emphasized that the first-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source
data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 3). The
"second" estimate for the first quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on May 31, 2012.
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction
The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment and a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in PCE and in exports.
view the GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: FIRST QUARTER 2012 (ADVANCE ESTIMATE)
Source: BEA
Vanguard Cuts Fees on Popular ETFs.
April 27, 2012--The ETF battles continue. Vanguard Group, the third-largest ETF provider, cut fees on 13 of its exchange-traded funds this week, bringing their costs to investors in line or ahead of those of some rival firms.
In a release, the company said that increasing assets under management at the funds made the cuts possible. Most of the changes went into effect on Thursday.
The affected ETFs – which include the Vanguard S&P 500 Index, Total Stock Market Index and Total Bond Market Index, among others – simply seek to track certain market indexes rather than to beat the market. Such ETFs have become increasingly commoditized as providers such as Charles Schwab, Blackrock’s iShares and State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR shares offer similar funds. That’s left the companies little choice but to compete on price.
read more
Source: Wall Street Journal
Canada promotional blitz urges free trade with EU
April 27, 2012--Government ministers on Friday set out across Canada to promote a free trade pact with the European Union described as the "most ambitious" deal in Canadian history.
However, key obstacles must still be overcome in the ongoing negotiations, such as Canada's clinging to its dairy supply management system and a few EU member states irked by visa restrictions.
"This is, by far, the most ambitious trade initiative in our nation's history, with the potential to be broader in scope and produce even more benefits to Canadians than the historic NAFTA," Trade Minister Ed Fast said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
April 27, 2012--The current reports for the week of April 24, 2012 are now available.
view upddates
Source: CFTC.gov
