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PIMCO Launches PIMCO 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond Index Fund
June 17, 2011--- PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, has launched a new Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), the PIMCO 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond Index Fund (NYSE: HYS). HYS employs PIMCO’s “smart passive” approach to indexation, and gives investors access to the short-term high-yield U.S. corporate credit market in the ETF vehicle.
HYS offers the same features as other PIMCO ETFs, including daily portfolio disclosure, broad accessibility, intra-day pricing and a single share class structure for all investors.
Like the broad high yield corporate bond market, the short-term segment of the high yield corporate bond market has had a low correlation with other asset classes, and historically has produced returns similar to those of equities, but with lower volatility. The short-term segment of the high-yield market may replicate the desirable return characteristics of the broader spectrum of high-yield bonds, and an investment in the sector may improve portfolio diversification and offer the potential for higher yield.
PIMCO’s “smart passive” approach incorporates credit analysis, which aims to remove credits that can create undesirable risks in the portfolio, as well as real-time views on market liquidity. The fund will be managed by Vineer Bhansali, a Managing Director based in Newport Beach, California.
Source: PIMCO
iShares Announces Launch of Floating Rate Note Fund
June 17, 2011---BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that its iShares® Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world's largest manager of ETFs, has launched their first floating rate note fund on the NYSE Arca. The new fund is the iShares Floating Rate Note Fund (NYSEArca: FLOT). By adding FLOT, iShares adds another element to their robust fixed income suite and another tool for investors to use in a rising rate environment.
"The value of floating rate bonds fluctuates much less in response to market interest rate movements than the value of fixed-rate bonds," said Russ Koesterich, iShares Chief Investment Strategist at BlackRock. "They can be a key instrument to help fixed-income investors insulate their portfolio in a rising inflation environment. While we don't see this as a near term threat, we still believe that interest rates are likely to rise, arguably substantially, in 2012 and beyond."
Floating rate notes are bonds that pay a variable rate coupon, rather than a fixed rate coupon like most fixed income investments. Issuers may choose to issue floating rate notes to take advantage of potential lower borrowing costs as compared to fixed rate debt. Floating rate note coupons are comprised of a short-term interest rate and a fixed spread based on the issuing company's credit risk.
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Source: BlackRock
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
June 17, 2011--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Friday, June 17, 2011:
iWeb Group Inc. (TSXVN:IWB) will be removed from the index.
The company will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange following the completion of a going-private transaction.
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 & Poors
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
June 17, 2011-CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports have been updated for the week of June 14, 2011 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
ISE Partners With UBS to Launch Two Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) on ISEs New Strategy Based Futures Indexes
New Products Are First ETNs Based on ISE Indexes
June 16, 2011--The International Securities Exchange (ISE) announced today that it has launched two new indexes, the ISE Oil Futures SpreadTM Index (Ticker: GZN) and the ISE Natural Gas Futures SpreadTM Index (Ticker: GYY). These new indexes track continuous exposure to oil futures prices and natural gas futures prices, respectively, using packaged calendar spread strategies.
In addition, ISE has partnered with UBS to launch two exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to these indexes. ETRACS Oil Futures Contango ETN (Ticker: OILZ) and ETRACS Natural Gas Futures Contango ETN (Ticker: GASZ) are the first ETNs to provide investors with exposure to futures-based calendar spread strategies in the oil and natural gas markets. Both products began trading on NYSE Arca on June 16, 2011.
“Our new partnership with UBS and the launch of two ETNs based on ISE’s strategy-based futures indexes mark significant achievements for our index business,” said Kris Monaco, Head of New Product Development at ISE. “We are excited to collaborate with UBS to meet the growing marketplace demand for exchange-traded investment vehicles that provide investors with exposure to sophisticated packaged investment strategies. By broadening our product offering to include both strategy-based indexes and futures-based indexes for the first time, we continue to expand our unique portfolio of indexes that serve as actionable investment strategies for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), ETNs and structured products.”
Historical index values, real-time pricing information and methodology guides for the new indexes are available on ISE’s website at www.ise.com/index.
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Source: International Securities Exchange (ISE)
Invesco PowerShares Launches the First Fundamental Pure Style ETFs
June 16, 2011--Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today that its suite of nine PowerShares Fundamental Pure Style ETFs based on the Research Affiliates® Fundamental Index® (RAFI®) methodology have begun trading on the NYSE Arca.
The names and tickers for the PowerShares Fundamental Pure Style ETFs are listed below.
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Value Core Growth
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PowerShares PowerShares PowerShares
Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure
Large Large Value Large Core Large Growth
Portfolio (PXLV) Portfolio (PXLC) Portfolio (PXLG)
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PowerShares PowerShares PowerShares
Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure
Mid Mid Value Mid Core Mid Growth
Portfolio (PXMV) Portfolio (PXMC) Portfolio (PXMG)
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PowerShares PowerShares PowerShares
Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure Fundamental Pure
Small Small Value Small Core Small Growth
Portfolio (PXSV) Portfolio (PXSC) Portfolio (PXSG)
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"We are very pleased to be expanding our partnership with Research Affiliates to offer investors the first suite of fundamentals-weighted style box ETFs,(1)" said Ben Fulton, Invesco PowerShares managing director of global ETFs. "The PowerShares Fundamental Pure Style ETFs utilize a fundamental rules-based process to attain precise style delineation and provide investors with accurate, stylistically pure market access. We believe the application of the Fundamental Index methodology to style box investing offers advisors and investors a compelling new tool to manage portfolios with the potential to produce improved risk-adjusted returns compared to cap-weighted benchmarks."
The PowerShares Fundamental Pure Style ETFs are designed to address the structural performance drag caused by market cap-weighting, which over time tends to overweight overvalued stocks and underweight undervalued stocks. The RAFI methodology uses four measures of economic size rather than market capitalization to weight each position. Selecting and weighting by economic size rather than market-cap breaks the link between market price and index weight.
"The new U.S. style indexes illustrate how the Fundamental Index methodology can be effectively applied in individual style categories, every bit as effectively as cap-weight indexes can," said Rob Arnott, chairman and CEO of Research Affiliates, LLC. "We are thrilled to partner with Invesco PowerShares on this and future additional extensions of our approach."
"Invesco PowerShares currently offers six equity ETFs based on the Fundamental Index methodology and they have all outperformed their respective market cap-weighted benchmarks since their inception dates,(2)" said John Feyerer, head of product strategy & research at Invesco PowerShares. "We believe investors seeking precise style classification with the potential for improved performance will have affinity for the PowerShares Fundamental Pure Style ETFs."
(1) On June 16, 2011, Invesco PowerShares changed the indexes, names and ticker symbols for seven existing ETFs in its Intellidex style/size lineup to the RAFI Fundamental US Style Index Series (RAFI Index Series). In addition, Invesco PowerShares listed two new funds; the PowerShares Fundamental Pure Large Growth Portfolio (PXLG), and the PowerShares Fundamental Pure Large Value Portfolio (PXLV), to provide investors with a complete suite of style box ETFs based on the RAFI Fundamental Index methodology. The rebranded portfolios management fees will be reduced to 0.29% and their operating expenses (excluding certain expenses) will be capped at 0.39% until at least Aug. 31, 2012.
(2) Source: Bloomberg L.P., as of May 31, 2011
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Source: Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC
Horizons ETFs launches Unique U.S. Equity Income Fund
June 16, 2011 - Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc. (“Horizons ETFs”) and AlphaPro Management Inc. (“AlphaPro”) are pleased to announce the filing of a final prospectus in respect of the initial public offering of Class A units (the “Units”) of the Horizons Enhanced U.S. Equity Income Fund (the “Fund”) priced at $10.00 per Unit for a maximum offering size of $100 Million.
The offering is expected to close on or about June 29, 2011. The Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) has conditionally approved the listing of the Units under the symbol (HES.UN), subject to fulfillment of the standard listing requirements of the TSX. AlphaPro is the manager and trustee of the Fund.
The Fund’s investment objectives are to provide holders of Units with: (a) the performance of an equal weighted portfolio of equity securities of large capitalization U.S. companies; (b) the opportunity for capital appreciation; (c) monthly distributions; and (d) lower overall volatility of portfolio returns than would be experienced by owning the Portfolio Securities (as defined below) without employing a covered call option strategy. To mitigate the downside risks associated with holding the Portfolio Securities, generate cashflow and allow for potential capital appreciation, the Fund will generally write short-term, “out-of-the-money” covered call options on 100% of the Portfolio Securities.
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Source: Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc.
Banks make Basel appeal to Congress
June 16, 2011--Banks and their regulators vied for US congressional support in a dispute over a new capital regime that is expected to be approved by the international Basel committee within weeks.
The arguments over whether the largest banks should be forced to hold more capital and how big the surcharge should be spilt into the open on Capitol Hill on Thursday after months of private debate
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Source: FT.com
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
June 16, 2011--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Thursday, June 16, 2011:
GASFRAC Energy Services Inc. (TSXVN:GFS) will be removed from the index.
The company will graduate to trade on TSX under the same ticker symbol.
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
Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Washington, DC
June 16, 2011--Good morning Chairman Bachus, Ranking Member Frank and members of the Committee. I thank you for inviting me to today’s hearing on the international context of financial regulatory reform. I also thank my fellow Commissioners and CFTC staff for their hard work and commitment on implementing the legislation.
I am pleased to testify alongside my fellow regulators.
Global Crisis
It has now been more than two years since the financial crisis, when both the financial system and the financial regulatory system failed. So many people – not just in the United States, but throughout the world – who never had any connection to derivatives or exotic financial contracts had their lives hurt by the risks taken by financial actors. The effects of the crisis remain. All over the world, we still have high unemployment, homes that are worth less than their mortgages and pension funds that have not regained the value they had before the crisis. We still have significant uncertainty in the financial system.
Though the crisis had many causes, it is clear that the swaps market played a central role. Swaps added leverage to the financial system with more risk being backed up by less capital. They contributed, particularly through credit default swaps, to the bubble in the housing market and helped to accelerate the financial crisis. They contributed to a system where large financial institutions were thought to be not only too big to fail, but too interconnected to fail. Swaps – initially developed to help manage and lower risk – actually concentrated and heightened risk in the economy and to the public.
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Source: CFTC.gov
