Americas ETP News
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In two ,State Street blamed for investors' huge losses
January 20, 2013--State Street Corp. is under fire in Boston federal court for huge losses suffered by clients of a Virgin Islands investment firm.
In two separate lawsuits this month, plaintiffs claim State Street failed in its duty as a custodian of their funds. State Street should have acted, the lawsuits say, after TAG Virgin Islands Inc. dramatically shifted its focus from stable to risky investments and after TAG obtained the plaintiffs’ funds after submitting numerous fake subordinated notes.
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Source: Patriot Ledger
Wall St records third straight week of gains
January 19, 2013--US equity markets recorded the third consecutive weekly gain this year,
as investors reacted to a barrage of earnings results from large banks and industrial bellwethers.
Source: FT.com
S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes To The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices-A Deletion From The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
January 18, 2013--S&P Canadian Index Services will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
The shares of GoGold Resources Inc. will be removed from the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of Monday, January 21, 2013.
The company will graduate to trade on TSX under the same ticker symbol.
Source: S&P Canadian Index Services
US releases final FATCA rules
January 18, 2013--The US authorities have released their final set of rules on the FATCA regime designed to prevent tax evasion among US citizens with assets in offshore accounts.
The final draft of the rules gives further details on the type of payments which will be subject to a 30% withholding tax, and clarifies the obligations of financial institutions caught by the rules.
In October, the Internal Revenue Service and the US Treasury Department postponed the first phase of FATCA to give foreign financial institutions (FFIs) more time to comply with the rules.
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Source: Investment Week
Fed minutes show slow crisis reaction
January 18, 2013--Top officials at the US Federal Reserve took months to realise that the 2007 financial crisis would rock the world's largest economy, according to an embarrassing set of meeting transcripts released on Friday.
The transcripts reveal that some Fed policy makers initially viewed the market turmoil, which erupted in August 2007 on the back of problems in the market for subprime mortgage loans, as good news because markets were pricing in more risk.
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Source: FT.com
US releases final FATCA rules
January 18, 2013--The US authorities have released their final set of rules on the FATCA regime designed to prevent tax evasion among US citizens with assets in offshore accounts.
The final draft of the rules gives further details on the type of payments which will be subject to a 30% withholding tax, and clarifies the obligations of financial institutions caught by the rules.
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Source: Investment Week
ETFs Turn 20-Years Old in the U.S.
January 17, 2013--The first commercially successful U.S. exchange-trade fund (ETF) turns 20-years old this month.
SPDR S&P 500 (Ticker: SPY) was launched on January 22, 1993 after spending several years in SEC registration. It was an evolution in the mutual fund industry. Today, SPY is the largest ETF by asset in the exchange-traded product industry that has total assets of over $1.4 trillion.
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Source: Forbes
Morningstar Launches Real Asset Index For Benchmarking Diversified Portfolio of Inflation-Hedged Investments
January 17, 2013--Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, has launched the Morningstar(R) US Real Asset IndexSM, a diversified portfolio of liquid assets that traditionally provide a hedge against inflation, including Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS), real estate investment trusts (REITs), and commodity stocks and futures.
"Inflation erodes the value of financial assets. While inflation has been low overall in recent decades, the cost of items retirees consume—healthcare, gas, food—has been rising at a fast clip,” Sanjay Arya, senior vice president of Morningstar Indexes, said. "Investors have been showing a great deal of interest in holding a variety of investments that keep pace with inflation and add portfolio diversification, and the investment industry is paying attention. Since early 2010, more than 20 new funds have been launched that allocate between several real asset classes. The Morningstar US Real Asset Index will allow investors to better benchmark their real return investments and gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of adding a broad spectrum of inflation-hedged assets to their portfolios."
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Source: Morningstar
Back to the drawing board for NYSE's ETF liquidity scheme
January 17, 2013--NYSE Arca has withdrawn its proposal to help exchange traded fund providers pay market makers for increased liquidity, a blow to providers looking for ways to make newer and smaller products more appealing to traders.
The Big Board notified the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 9 that it was withdrawing its Lead Market Maker Incentive Program pilot proposal, just days before the SEC was mandated by law to approve or reject the proposal, according to an SEC filing.
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Source: FT.com
Finra Scrutinizes Options Firms Over Possible Order Mismarking
Janurary 17, 2013--Market regulators are pursuing a wide-ranging review of firms that trade stock options, scrutinizing electronic trading practices that may have allowed firms to avoid paying exchange fees and step ahead of other investors to complete trades.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is conducting a sweep of options firms after exchanges last year levied a $6.75 million fine on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for improperly submitting stock-options orders over a period of six years.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
