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BlackRock fights to fix faltering active equities
April 13, 2014--BlackRock appears an indomitable force in the asset management industry, but the world's largest fund house has a chink in its armour that is proving difficult to fix.
The company, which last week laid out a succession plan for its chief executive Larry Fink,saw its asset base surpass $4tn for the first time last year,while its share price has risen by a fifth over the past 12 months.
But despite its recent successes, a closer look at the investment giant's 2013 results reveals a niggling weak spot: active equities.
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Source: FT.com
Big asset managers eye new trading venue
April 11, 2014--Several of the world's largest asset managers are discussing the creation of a joint equity trading venue, in an attempt to end the technological arms race sparked by high-frequency trading firms.
Fidelity, the Boston-based manager with $1.9tn under management, has sounded out rivals about routing their share trades through a central venue that would rival traditional stock exchanges and so-called "dark pools" of liquidity.
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Source: FT.com
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
April 11, 2014--The current reports for the week of April 8, 2014 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Direxion Launches the First Pair Of 3x Leveraged ETFs Tracking the Price of Gold
New Funds Offer Exclusive Leveraged Long and Short Exposure to Gold Prices
April 10, 2014--Direxion, a leader in alternative investment solutions, announced today the launch of two new 3X exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its existing lineup of leveraged funds.
The new ETFs, the Direxion Daily Gold Bull 3X Shares (GLDL) and the Direxion Daily Gold Bear 3X Shares (GLDS), are leveraged funds with the investment objective to seek 300 percent of the daily performance, or 300 percent of the inverse of the daily performance, (before fees and expenses) of Comex Gold Futures ('the benchmark').
The benchmark for the ETFs is the daily last sale price value occurring on or before 4 p.m. E.S.T. of a standard gold futures contract for the current active month for 100 troy ounces of gold. This is the first pair of leveraged ETFs to track the price of gold and gold futures.
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Source: Direxion
Despite Tighter External Conditions, Latin America and the Caribbean Hold Steady
Remittances and Foreign Direct Investment provide more reliable flows
Growth continues, albeit slow: 2.3% in 2014
Without productivity reforms the region could see social progress stall
April 9, 2014--As international investors shift their focus back to advanced economies, particularly the United States, as a result of monetary policy normalization, emerging economies face much tighter financial conditions.
Still, the impact of this reversal in capital flows is less significant for Latin America and the Caribbean thanks to its new reliance on more stable international flows.
According to the latest semiannual report by the World Bank's Office of the Chief Economist for the region, during the past decade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances have come to represent a far larger share of net flows into the region than the more volatile non-FDI flows. The report "International Flows to Latin America: Rocking the Boat?" finds that these more stable flows, combined with the region's improved macroeconomic and financial policy frameworks, give much of Latin America a much better capacity to absorb external shocks.
view the World Bank report-International Flows to Latin America: Rocking the Boat?
Source: World Bank
Horizons ETFs' Active and Specialty ETF Business surpasses $2 billion in AUM
April 9, 2014--Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. and its affiliate AlphaPro Management Inc. (collectively "Horizons ETFs") are pleased to announce that AlphaPro's family of actively managed and specialty exchange traded funds ("Active ETFs") has reached $2 billion in assets under management ("AUM").
Horizons ETFs offers 28 Active ETFs managed by various portfolio managers, who aim to deliver better risk-adjusted returns than the broader markets they invest in or reference. This is unlike passive or index-tracking ETFs, also offered by Horizons ETFs, which seek to replicate the returns of benchmark indices or multiples thereof.
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Source: Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
WisdomTree Launches Suite of Currency-Hedged Japan Sector Funds
April 8, 2014--WisdomTree, an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the launch of a suite of Currency-Hedged Japan Sector Funds on the NYSE Arca. The ETFs seek to provide exposure to the respective sectors within Japanese equity markets while hedging exposure to the yen.
Each has a net expense ratio of 0.43%.1
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Source: Global Newswire
CFTC's Divisions of Market Oversight and Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Provide Conditional No-Action Relief with Respect to Swaps Trading on Multilateral Trading Facilities Overseen by Authorities Designated by European Union Member States
April 8, 2014--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Divisions of Market Oversight (DMO) and Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) today announced the joint issuance of CFTC No-Action Letter No. 14-46 (No-Action Letter 14-46), replacing CFTC No-Action Letter No. 14-16 (No-Action Letter 14-16), which DMO and DSIO issued on February 12, 2014.
No-Action Letter 14-16 provided no-action relief for:
Qualifying MTFs from the SEF registration requirement;
Parties executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from the trade execution mandate; and
Swap dealers and major swap participants executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from certain business conduct requirements.
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Source: CFTC.gov
CBO-Monthly Budget Review for March 2014
April 7, 2014--The federal government ran a budget deficit of $413 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates-$187 billion less than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year. Revenues were about 10 percent higher; and outlays, about 4 percent lower.
Receipts for the first six months of fiscal year 2014 totaled $1,320 billion, CBO estimates-$123 billion more than receipts in the same period last year. The largest increases were the following:
Individual income taxes and social insurance (payroll) taxes together rose by $92 billion, or 9 percent. Increases in amounts withheld from workers' paychecks-amounting to $73 billion (or 7 percent)-accounted for most of that gain. Besides growth in wages and salaries, changes in law contributed to the increases: In 2013, the tax rates in effect for October through December were higher than those in effect during those months in 2012 because of two changes that occurred in January 2013-namely, the expiration of the 2 percentage-point payroll tax cut and increases in tax rates for income above certain thresholds.
view the CBO Monthly Budget Review for March 2014
Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
U.S. SEC probing high-speed trading
April 1, 2014-The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has active investigations into high-frequency trading, the head of the agency said on Tuesday.
"We currently have a number of ongoing investigations regarding various market integrity and structure issues including high frequency trading and automated trading," SEC Chair Mary Jo White said before a Congressional hearing.
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Source: Reuters
