Global ETF News Older than One Year
China says debt financing unlikely 'to save' US, EU
August 5, 2011--China said Friday that debt deals in the United States and in Europe would not be enough to save their economies and "concrete steps" must be taken to rebalance the global economy.
"The only way the Americans have come up with to improve economic growth has been to take on new loans to repay the old ones," a blistering commentary published on the official Xinhua news agency said.
"To eat May's grain in April, however, will never be a permanent solution to a problem," the report said.
Source: EUbusiness
'Fear' Gauges Show Unusual Disparity Between US, Emerging Markets
U.S., developed-world volatility benchmarks rise faster than emerging markets
Trend shows more anxiety about stocks that are usually perceived as less risky
Lower emerging-market volatility views seen as sign of those markets' emergence
August 5, 2011--Global risk worries are turning the stock market's "fear" gauges on their heads.
Volatility indexes such as the VIX reflect the prices investors pay to use stock options as protective hedges. Typically, protective options in markets such as those in the U.S. and Europe carry a lower risk premium than those in emerging markets, which investors generally perceive to be riskier and more volatile.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Taxing Financial Transactions: An Assessment of Administrative Feasibility-IMF Working paper
August 4, 2011--Summary: This paper considers how a tax on financial transactions could be applied to three broad and partially overlapping categories of financial instruments: (1) exchange-traded instruments; (2) over-the-counter instruments; and,
(3) foreign exchange instruments. For each category, the paper examines the factors that would facilitate or complicate the administration of a financial transactions tax, the options for collecting the tax, the types of compliance risks that are likely to be encountered, and measures for mitigating these risks.
Source: IMF
Stocks plunge on debt, growth fears
June 4, 2011--World stocks plunged to new 2011 lows on Thursday as worries about a global slowdown intensified and investors piled more money into safe-haven assets like bonds.
As Wall Street’s losses deepened, gold turned negative after touching another record high near $1700 an ounce.
The exodus from stocks pushed the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down 3% percent, while the clamor for safe-haven investments drove the yield of the 10-year US Treasury note below 2.5%, the lowest since early November 2010.
Source: FIN24
EU probes takeover bid to create biggest stock market
August 4, 2011--European Union anti-trust officials Thursday launched a probe into takeover plans aiming to create the world's biggest stock exchange.
The European Commission said it opened an in-depth investigation into the deal to stitch together Frankfurt's Deutsche Boerse AG and New York's NYSE Euronext Inc., warning of concerns particularly over control of high-risk derivatives trading.
The commission said an initial probe announced on June 29 "indicated competition concerns in a number of areas, in particular in the field of derivatives trading and clearing."
Source: EUbusiness
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes July 2011 Performance Report
August 3, 2011--The global Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index, which measures the performance of 100 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks globally, dropped 0.95% in July, closing at 2327.64. In comparison, the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index, which measures the 50 biggest companies worldwide, posted a loss of 0.28%, closing at 183.09.
− The Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of 25 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks in the Asia/Pacific region, increased 1.16%, closing at 2194.65. The Dow Jones Asian Titans 50 Index, in comparison, posted a gain of 0.16%, closing at 138.28.
Measuring Europe, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index, which measures the performance of the 25 of the leading Shari’ah compliant stocks in Europe, closed at 2288.46, a loss of 1.72%, while the conventional Dow Jones Europe Index loss 3.57%, closing at 278.79.
Source: Mondovisione
Gold hits highs on US growth worries
August 3, 2011--Gold prices have hit a nominal high for the second day running as investors pile into the precious metal amid worries about the global economy.
Spot bullion in London on Wednesday reached a record of $1,672.65 a troy ounce, up 0.8 per cent on the day, after a report released on Tuesday showed that US consumers cut back on spending in June for the first time since September 2009.
Source: FT.com
Banks in BRICs Signaling Credit Crisis With Loans Showing Increasing Risks
August 2, 2011--Banks in the biggest emerging markets are losing the confidence of investors as loans turn sour after a two-year credit binge.
Brazil’s financial shares have lost more this year than counterparts in crisis-stricken Europe as consumer defaults hit a 12-month high in June and borrowing costs climbed to 46 percent. Bank stocks in China are trading at lower valuations than global emerging-market indexes for the first time since 2006. The country faces a financial crisis with bad debt that may jump to 30 percent of total loans, Fitch Ratings said.
Source: Bloomberg
Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes - July 2011 Performance Report
August 2, 2011--The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was up 2.96% for the month of July. The Dow Jones-UBS Single Commodity Indexes for silver, sugar and wheat had the strongest gains with month-to-date returns of 15.14%, 13.17% and 9.48%, respectively.
The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were cotton, coffee and natural gas, which were down 14.18%, 9.81% and 5.65% respectively, in July.
Year to date, the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is up 0.26% with the Dow Jones-UBS Silver Sub-Index posting the highest gain of 29.37% so far in 2011. Dow Jones-UBS Wheat Sub-Index has the most significant downside YTD performance, down 25.56%.
Source: Mondovisione
ETFS Precious Metals Weekly: Gold price hits record high on US growth, debt downgrade worries despite US debt deal
August 2, 2011--Gold spot price hits record high above $1640/oz as US growth and debt downgrade fears offset news of debt compromise. Weak US GDP data and a
drop in the July manufacturing ISM highlight the fragility of the US recovery, and the potential need for a third round of quantitative easing later this year. S&P have
highlighted that $4tr of cuts are necessary to stabilize US debt, well above the $2.4tr in the government compromise, indicating continued risk of the US losing its AAA rating.
Exchange traded product (ETP) gold holdings hit new high, speculative gold futures longs highest in 9 months. Global gold ETP holdings hit 2,150 tons ($113bn) last week according to Bloomberg. This rebound in interest has been accompanied by a 39% rise COMEX speculative futures positioning in July – to the highest level in 9 months. COMEX silver, platinum and palladium speculative futures holdings are also up between 30% and 48%over the past month.
Platinum, palladium prices up on South Africa mining labour disruptions and rising nationalisation fears. Palladium prices have seen the second strongest price gains behind silver over the past month as industrial action in South Africa threatens to exacerbate the market supply deficit in 2011. A market risk report released last week also highlighted rising risk of South African mine nationalization.
Gold price rallies to record level as weak US growth and continued debt downgrade concerns offset the risk-positive news a compromise has been reached to raise the US debt ceiling.
visit www.etfsecurities.com for more info
Source: Source: ETFS Securities
