Global ETF News Older than One Year
The World Federation of Exchanges Publishes 2010 Market Statistics
February 7, 2011-- Global equity market capitalization on regulated exchanges increased 14.9 percent to $54.8 trillion (USD) in 2010 as markets continued their rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE ) reported in its annual publication of market statistics.
The 2010 total market capitalization for the more than 50 WFE-member exchanges, which had increased 45.5 percent increase in 2009, approached its record high of $60.8 trillion (USD) last achieved at the end of 2007. The Asia-Pacific region’s capitalization gained 19.5 percent, followed by the Americas (+17.1 percent) and Europe-Africa-Middle east (+7.4 percent).
Source: WFE
Investors back onshore hedge funds
February 7, 2011--A majority of hedge fund investors are eschewing traditional offshore funds in favour of tightly regulated onshore vehicles – a sign of the lasting impact of the Madoff scandal and 2008 liquidity crisis.
According to a comprehensive industry survey, 55 per cent of hedge fund investors would now prefer to allocate money in onshore so-called Ucits funds compared with just 21.7 per cent in traditional offshore Cayman Island funds.
Source: FT.com
Food price boom puts palm oil on emerging markets’ radar
February 4, 2011--Palm oil output and stocks, already lagging robust demand due to rains in top Southeast Asia producers, could be made worse should the cooking ingredient become the next target for emerging markets seeking to buy big and dampen adverse effects of booming world food prices.
As governments from India and Thailand to Egypt act to quell soaring food inflation and public anger, world cooking oil supplies look uncertain as the impact of dry weather and social unrest in the Argentine soy crushing sector lingers. A scramble for palm oil may see world consumption outpace production, going beyond a supply deficit of 246,000 tons as seen in US Department of Agriculture data in the current marketing year to September.
Source: Todays Zaman
Classifications of Countries Based on Their Level of Development: How it is Done and How it Could be Done-IMF Working paper
February 4, 2011-- The paper analyzes how the UNDP, the World Bank, and the IMF classify countries based on their level of development. These systems are found lacking in clarity with regard to their underlying rationale.
The paper argues that a country classification system based on a transparent, data-driven methodology is preferable to one based on judgment or ad hoc rules. Such an alternative methodology is developed and used to construct classification systems using a variety of proxies for development attainment.
Source: IMF
Copper and oil prices climb on fears of supply disruption
February 4, 2011--Oil and copper prices broke this week above $100 a barrel and $10,000 a tonne respectively, amid strong demand and supply worries.
“The strength of the global economic recovery is driving commodities like base metals and energy higher and these two sectors have been the best performers during the past week,” said Ole Hansen, senior commodity analyst at Saxo Bank in Denmark.
Source: FT.com
NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes for January 2011
Global Derivatives Averaged 9.0 Million Contracts per Day in January
European Derivatives Volumes Down 8% vs. Prior Year; Up 42% Sequentially
European Cash Trading Volumes Up 28%, U.S. Cash Down 12% vs. Prior Year
February 4, 2011--NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced trading volumes for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for January 2011 .
Global derivatives average daily volume (“ADV”) of 9.0 million contracts traded per day in January 2011 decreased 2.7% versus the prior year, but increased 35.6% sequentially.
The decrease in global derivatives ADV versus prior year levels was driven primarily by a 7.5% decrease in European derivatives, partially offset by a 3.0% increase in U.S. equity options ADV. The strong sequential increase was driven by a 78.0% increase in European fixed income derivatives and a 29.5% increase in U.S. equity options. Cash equities ADV in January 2011 was mixed, with European cash ADV increasing 27.8% and U.S. cash trading volumes decreasing 12.2% from January 2010 levels.
Source: NYSE Euronext
Global Shocks and their Impact on Low-Income Countries: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis-IMF Working paper
February 2, 2011-- This paper investigates the short-run effects of the 2007-09 global financial crisis on growth in (mainly non-fuel exporting) low-income countries (LICs). Four conclusions stand out. First, for many individual LICs, 2009 was not extraordinarily calamitous; however, aggregate LIC output declined sharply because LICs were unusually synchronized. Second, the growth declines are on average well explained by the decline in export demand.
Third, if the external environment facing LICs improves as forecast, their growth should rebound sharply. Finally, and contrary to received wisdom, there are few robust relationships between the cross-country growth variation and the policy and structural environment; the main exceptions are reserve coverage and labor-market flexibility.
Source: IMF
NASDAQ OMX Reports Record Fourth Quarter 2010 Results
Non-GAAP EPS of $0.55 Represents 20% Increase Over Q409 Results
February 2, 2011--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. ("NASDAQ OMX®") (Nasdaq:NDAQ) reported strong results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $137 million, or $0.69 per diluted share, compared with $101 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2010, and $43 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009. For the full year of 2010, net income attributable to NASDAQ OMX was $395 million, or $1.91 per diluted share.
Included in the fourth quarter of 2010 results are $9 million of expenses associated with workforce reductions, merger and strategic initiatives, and other items, offset by $36 million of benefits primarily associated with the tax impact of these items and the restructuring of certain NASDAQ OMX subsidiaries.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
Globalization, the Business Cycle, and Macroeconomic Monitoring -IMF Working paper
February 1, 2011--We propose and implement a framework for characterizing and monitoring the global business cycle. Our framework utilizes high-frequency data, allows us to account for a potentially large amount of missing observations, and is designed to facilitate the updating of global activity estimates as data are released and revisions become available. We apply the framework to the G-7 countries and study various aspects of national and global business cycles, obtaining three main results.
First, our measure of the global business cycle, the common G-7 real activity factor, explains a significant amount of cross-country variation and tracks the major global cyclical events of the past forty years. Second, the common G-7 factor and the idiosyncratic country factors play different roles at different times in shaping national economic activity. Finally, the degree of G-7 business cycle synchronization among country factors has changed over time.
view the IMF Working paper-Globalization, the Business Cycle, and Macroeconomic Monitoring
Source: IMF
Consumer Prices, OECD - Updated: 1 February 2011
February 1, 2011--Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 2.1% in the year to December 2010, up from 1.8% in November. This pick-up in inflation was partly driven by higher energy prices which increased by 8.3% in the year to December, compared with 5.4% in November.
Food prices continued to rise at relatively high rates: 2.6% in December (compared with 2.7% in November). Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose by 1.2 % in December, unchanged from November.
Source: OECD
