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Minutes Of The Federal Open Market Committee, December 17,18, 2013
January 8, 2014--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on December 17-18, 2013. A summary of economic projections made by Federal Reserve Board members and Reserve Bank presidents for the meeting is also included as an addendum to these minutes.
The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board's Annual Report. Summaries of economic projections are released on a quarterly schedule. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in these minutes and in the Summary of Economic Projections are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meeting.
view the Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee
December 17-18, 2013
Source; FBR
State Street Teaming With MFS to Open Active Equity ETFs
January 8, 2014--State Street Corp. (STT), the second-biggest provider of exchange-traded funds, plans to introduce its first actively managed stock ETFs in partnership with MFS Investment Management.
The three funds, the SPDR MFS Systematic Core Equity ETF (SYE), Growth Equity ETF and Value Equity ETF (SYV), will open tomorrow on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a statement yesterday from NYSE Euronext.
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Source: Bloomberg
BlackRock Agrees to End Wall Street Analysis Previews
January 8, 2014--BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, has agreed to end its practice of surveying Wall Street analysts to glean clues about their views on companies before those opinions are publicly issued.
The decision was reached late Wednesday as part of a settlement with Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general. The settlement document filed in the case contended that BlackRock’s surveys "allowed it to obtain information from analysts that could reveal forthcoming revisions to their published views" on companies they followed. The firm will also pay $400,000 to cover costs of the investigation.
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Source: The New York Times
Senate to quiz US regulators on Wall St commodity bets
Hearing on banks and commodities set for Jan. 15
Top officials from FERC, Fed and CFTC will appear
Alleged aluminum manipulation to be back in focus
January 8, 2014--A Senate panel will hold a hearing next week to question financial regulators over Wall Street's role in physical commodity markets, drawing fresh attention to a controversy over the possible risks posed by the involvement of the largest U.S. investment banks.
The Jan. 15 hearing by a subcommittee of the powerful Senate Banking Committee is to include testimony by top oversight officials with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and an official from the Federal Reserve's banking supervision arm.
The hearing, the second called by Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, comes as the Fed reconsiders exemptions given to banks since the early 2000s that allow them to engage in the previously prohibited trading of physical commodities.
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Source: Reuters
CBO-Monthly Budget Review for December 2013
January 8, 2014--The federal government ran a budget deficit of $182 billion for the first three months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates, $111 billion less than the shortfall recorded in first three months of last year.
Revenues are higher and outlays are lower than they were at the same point in fiscal year 2013.
view the CBO Monthly Budget Review for December 2013
Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
BlueStar Launches New Technology Index; BIGI Undergoes Rebalance
January 8, 2014--BlueStar Indexes, a provider of Israel focused investment research, announced the launch of its second index, the BlueStar Israel Global Technology Index("BIGTech") .
BIGTech provides a benchmark for investors to track Israeli and Israel linked technology companies trading worldwide. Like the methodology for BlueStar's flagship product, the BlueStar Israel Global Index ("BIGI"), BIGTech's methodology allow's for the inclusion of Israeli companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and other exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Exchange, and the London Stock Exchange.
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Source: BlueStar Global Investors
Invesco makes a big push into alternatives
Six new liquid alternatives funds are part of firm's effort to help advisers handle risk
January 7, 2014--Invesco has launched six new liquid alternatives mutual funds in the past month, more than doubling its total number of such funds as it makes a big push into the fast growing space.
"A large part of our conversations with advisers is around risk mitigation, risk management and finding uncorrelated assets," said Andrew Schlossberg, head of U.S. retail distribution and global ETFs. "It's a big topic. We see it as a long-term topic of discussion with advisers."
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Source: Investment News
Commodity-Stock Correlations and the Business Cycle
January 7, 2014--Abstract:
Measured over long horizons, the correlation between stocks and commodities is close to zero. However, it varies widely over time. Using historical data extending back to 1960 we study the stock-commodity correlation and show: (1) stock-commodity correlation has a business cycle component: it is higher during periods of economic weakness. (2) The same pattern is observed in the average intra-commodity correlation.
Our results are consistent with recession-increased risk aversion causing investors to treat all risky assets the same, and also with firms adjusting variable input use more quickly during tough times. (3) This business cycle effect can explain the spikes in the stock-commodity correlation in the early 1980s and the late 2000s. (4) The link between stock-commodity correlation and business cycle is stronger for industrial commodities than for agricultural commodities.
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Source: United States Commodity Funds
Deep freeze puts $5 billion chill on economy
January 7, 2014--The record cold spell that has half the country in the deep freeze could cost the U.S. economy up to $5 billion.
That's because millions of Americans haven't been able to drive to work, fly or take a train to business meetings or vacations, go to the shopping mall or take the kids out for a movie and a meal. And they may also have to pay more just to keep warm.
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Source: NBC News
Latin America Equity Market Outlook
January 7, 2014--Growth confidence and politics are likely to underpin absolute and relative performance of Latin American equity markets in 2014. Weaker terms of trade have translated into deterioration in the regional current account balance, though the investment environment remains attractive given high levels of foreign direct investments (FDI) and low dependence on external debt.
The development of Latin America’s capital markets is a structural trend supported both by demographics and income growth, and we view the long-term risk-reward balance as favorable.
Following a year of downward revisions to growth forecasts in 2013, we expect Latin America to post moderately higher output in 2014, closer to the region’s non-inflationary potential of around 3.5% per annum.
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Source: Mirae Asset Financial Group
