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SEC Charges New York Stock Exchange for Improper Distribution of Market Data
NYSE Agrees to Settle Charges by Paying First-Ever SEC Financial Penalty Against An Exchange
September 14, 2012--The Securities and Exchange Commission today brought first-of-its-kind charges against the New York Stock Exchange for compliance failures that gave certain customers an improper head start on trading information.
SEC Regulation NMS (National Market System) prohibits the practice of improperly sending market data to proprietary customers before sending that data to be included in what are known as consolidated feeds, which broadly distribute trade and quote data to the public. This ensures the public has fair access to current market information about the best displayed prices for stocks and trades that have occurred.
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Source: SEC.gov
SEC Called On Once More To Answer For Favoring Big Firms
September 14, 2012--Everyone has the feeling that the Securities and Exchange Commission is taking it easy on big firms. But until now, there hasn’t been an empirical study that backs up that claim.
Now, there is.
Berkeley Law professor Stavros Gadinis recently released the results of a study he conducted analyzing SEC enforcement actions against broker-dealers, covering over 400 cases in 1998 and from 2005-2007. He found that bigger firms were treated with a lighter hand than smaller ones.
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Source: CompliencEX
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
September 14, 2012--The current reports for the week of September 11, 2012 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes To The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices-A Deletion From The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
September 14, 2012--S&P Canadian Index Services will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
On September 13, 2012, Continental Nickel Limited (TSXVN:CNI) received final court approval for their Plan of Arrangement whereby the company will be acquired by IMX Resources Limited (ASX:IXR).
Continental Nickel will be removed from the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Friday, September 14, 2012.
Source: Standard & Poor's
Hedge funds plow into commodities just before QE3: CFTC
September 14, 2012--Hedge funds and other big speculators pumped more than $6 billion into U.S. commodity markets this week, the most in three weeks, just before the Federal Reserve announced a third round of stimulus for the U.S. economy, trade data showed on Friday.
With gold, oil, metals and crop prices already at or near multimonth highs, the speculators raised to above $117 billion their net long positions across 22 commodity markets tracked by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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Source: Reuters
SEC's Shillman says new rules could include more market participants
Current review standards are voluntary, could be made enforceable
September 13, 2012--With high-profile technical glitches costing U.S. exchanges and trading firms hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months, U.S. regulators are taking a deeper look at creating enforceable technology review standards for exchanges and market participants.
"If there is a technology glitch things can get real bad real fast, so market participants need to reassess their controls over technology," David Shillman, associate director for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets said on Thursday.
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Source: Reuters
Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement
September 13, 2012--Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in August suggests that economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace in recent months.
Growth in employment has been slow, and the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending has continued to advance, but growth in business fixed investment appears to have slowed. The housing sector has shown some further signs of improvement, albeit from a depressed level. Inflation has been subdued, although the prices of some key commodities have increased recently. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee is concerned that, without further policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions. Furthermore, strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee also anticipates that inflation over the medium term likely would run at or below its 2 percent objective.
Hedge Fund Association Asks SEC for Clear Rules on Verifying Investor Accreditation
Industry Trade Organization Asks for Provision in JOBS Act Rules to Limit Fund Managers' Liability Should They Take Reasonable, Pre-Defined Steps to Confirm Whether Investors Are Accredited
September 13, 2012--The Hedge Fund Association, (the HFA), an international not-for-profit organization representing investors, hedge funds and service providers, today asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a comment letter to specifically tell private fund managers what they will need to do to safely verify whether investors are accredited,
should they want to advertise after the rules in the Jump Start Our Business Start-ups Act (JOBS Act) are finalized. The HFA also praised the entire proposed rule to lift the hedge fund advertising ban as a significant step to modernize securities laws that maintains the investor protections available under the current system. At the same time, they encouraged the regulator to coordinate with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to harmonize any new rules with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).
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Source: The Hedge Fund Association
Federal Reserve Board and Federal Open Market Committee release economic projections from the September 12-13 FOMC meeting
September 13, 2012--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Thursday released the attached table and charts summarizing the economic projections and the target federal funds rate projections made by Federal Reserve Board members and Federal Reserve Bank presidents for the September 12-13 meeting of the Committee.
The table will be incorporated into a summary of economic projections released with the minutes of the September 12-13 meeting. Summaries of economic projections are released on a quarterly schedule.
view the Economic Projections of Federal Reserve Board Members and Federal Reserve Bank Presidents, September 2012
Source: Federal Reserve Board (FBR)
TMX Group Inc. Shareholders Approve Subsequent Arrangement
September 12, 2012-- TMX Group Inc. today announced that its shareholders passed a special resolution to approve a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) involving, among other things, the acquisition by TMX Group Limited (formerly Maple Group Acquisition Corporation) of all of the outstanding common shares of TMX Group Inc.
(other than common shares held by TMX Group Limited) in exchange for common shares of TMX Group Limited on a one-for-one basis (the "Arrangement"). The special resolution was approved by 99.99% of the votes cast by holders of common shares of TMX Group Inc. at TMX Group Inc.'s special meeting of shareholders held on September 12, 2012 in Toronto.
The application to the Ontario Superior Court to obtain the final order approving the Arrangement is scheduled for September 13, 2012. The transaction with TMX Group Limited is expected to close on September 14, 2012 following the receipt of all necessary court approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions.
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Source: TMX Group Inc.
