Global ETF News Older than One Year
Schwab, Guggenheim make their mark in ETFs
Low fees and strong performance draw investors, but buyer beware
March 18, 2015--The business of exchange-traded funds is dominated by three big players: BlackRock's iShares, Vanguard Group, and State Street, which collectively control 82% of the roughly $2 trillion invested in ETFs.
Other firms are fighting to gain market share, and several have made their way into Bloomberg Markets' annual ranking of the fastest-growing funds over the three years ended on Dec. 31.
Source: Investment News
Easy Money Drives Investors Into Stocks, Company Debt, BIS Says
March 18, 2015--Monetary stimulus around the world is increasing the amount of government bonds with yields below zero, and that's pushing investors into stocks and corporate debt, the Bank for International Settlements said.
European equity funds registered a cumulative inflow of almost $19 billion in the four weeks following the European Central Bank's announcement in January that it would start buying government bonds, the BIS said in a report published today.
Source: Bloomberg
Can We Avoid Real Estate Bubbles? Two New Forum Reports Explore the Issue
March 18, 2015--At this year's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, experts from central banks, government, academia and the real estate sector reviewed and finalized recommendations and policy options on how to proceed with the community's 2015 agenda.
Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics and International Business, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, who was part of the Davos discussion, said: "There is increasing evidence of frothiness in a number of housing markets in both advanced economies and emerging markets, including Canada, the UK, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, China, Hong Kong and Singapore among others. We're also seeing early signs of overheating in a number of credit and equity markets across the world." In recent years, real estate markets have become more international and the global flows of foreign investment make local markets more susceptible to real asset volatility.
Source: World Economic Forum (WEF)
Banks Win 9-Month Swap Margin Rules Delay From Basel Group
March 18, 2015--Banks won a delay in the introduction of minimum global rules on the collateral needed to back trades in the $691 trillion market for swaps and other over-the-counter derivatives.
International regulators said the date for beginning to phase in the measures would be September 2016 compared with previous plans for a December 2015 start.
Source: Bloomberg
BIS-March 2015 BIS Quarterly Review: A wave of further easing
March 18, 2015--A growing share of sovereign debt and even some private bonds are now trading at negative yields as a wave of easier monetary policy feeds through into unprecedented bond market conditions.
The revival in international bank lending since early 2014 has occurred alongside persistently strong bond issuance in emerging markets. Cross-border lending to most Asian emerging economies continued to grow rapidly, although lending to China showed signs of peaking.
To view the potential costs of deflation solely through the lens of the Great Depression could be misleading, argue Claudio Borio, Magdalena Erdem, Andrew Filardo and Boris Hofmann (BIS). Their historical review finds little systematic connection between price deflation and growth.
The heavy indebtedness of oil producers may have amplified the sharp drop in oil prices and related investment, find Dietrich Domanski, Jonathan Kearns, Marco Lombardi and Hyun Song Shin (BIS).
view the BIS Quarterly Review, March 2015
Source: BIS
Investors slash US exposure on rate hike fears
March 17, 2015--Global fund managers have trimmed their exposure to U.S. stocks to the lowest levels since 2008 in anticipation of a U.S. Federal Reserve rate rise, with increasing numbers expecting the central bank to move in the second quarter of this year.
In March, a net 19 percent of global asset allocators polled in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's regular fund manager survey were underweight U.S. equities.
Source: CNBC
DMS-Deciphering Developing Markets-An Economic Boom In Mauritius, A Tropical Paradise
March 17, 2015--Part of the African continent, with neighboring countries such as the Reunion Islands, Madagascar and the Seychelles, is the island republic of Mauritius.
Over the centuries, Mauritius has been occupied at different times by three of the world’s greatest maritime powers. Beginning in 1578, Mauritius was a Portuguese possession and remained so until 1610 when it was abandoned by them
Source: Peter Kohli of DMS for Nasdaq.com
UPDATE 1-No push to make Deutsche Bank exclusively German-Co-CEO
March 17, 2015--European banks not ready to expand balance sheets-Jain
Needs strong capital markets to offset banks-Jain
EU Commissioner-we look at jobs growth effect of rules (Adds Co-CEO comment)
Deutsche Bank is under no pressure to focus its business on its domestic market or abjure international investment banking, its Co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters
Bitcoin Users To Approach 5 Million by 2019, Juniper Research Finds
Adoption Likely to be Limited to Niche Demographics
March 17, 2015--A new report from Juniper Research has found that the number of active Bitcoin users worldwide will reach 4.7 million by the end of 2019, up from just over 1.3 million last year.
However, the report, 'The Future of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Altcoin Impact & Opportunities 2015-2019' argues that usage will be continue to be dominated by exchange trading, with retail adoption largely restricted to relatively niche demographics.
Retail Activity "Extremely Low"
According to the report, while a number of high profile retailers are enabling Bitcoin payment, activity levels from both online and offline deployments are extremely low.
Source: Juniper Research
Passive funds' rise heightens fear of shock
March 16, 2015--In the past two years, the growth of passive investment funds, which track the markets and charge cheap fees, has been one of the main stories in the world of asset management.
Last year Vanguard, one of the world's biggest providers of passive investments with $2tn in trackers and more than $450bn in global exchange traded funds...
Source: FT.com
