Tag Archive for 'Capital Markets'

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext Seal Deal

Published on February 15, 2011 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .


Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext on Tuesday unveiled a widely expected merger agreement that would create an exchange powerhouse by becoming the world’s largest owner of equities and derivatives markets [Source].

The merger deal creates an unprecedented exchange powerhouse with more than $20 trillion (12.4 trillion pounds) in annual trading volume and operations in Germany, France, Britain, Amsterdam, Portugal, Belgium, and the United States [Source].

Together, Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex unit and NYSE Euronext’s London-based Liffe unit would dominate European exchange-based futures trading, with more than 90 percent overall, raising antitrust questions among market regulators. After a few years off that included the financial crisis and the beginning of a global regulatory revamp, the world’s exchange operators are back in the takeover game [Source].

“Overall, we find this transaction compelling on an operational and strategic basis,” wrote BMO Capital Markets analysts in a Monday note examining the potential tie-up between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext.

“However, we also have concerns about the deal, most of which relate to timing and likelihood of regulatory approvals, synergy realization, as well as longer-term management and cultural issues,” BMO [Source]

Dow Closes Above 12.000

Published on February 2, 2011 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: .

Despite the turmoil in the Middle East, the market powered to a 30-month high, closing above 12.000 Tuesday.

The key driver was a slew of strong earnings reports. The last time we saw Dow 12,000 was on June 19, 2008.

Across the board, the major averages were strong. The Dow climbed 148,23 to 12,040,16, S & P 500 rose 21,47 to 1307,59, and the NASDAQ surged 51,11 to 2751,19, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Dow 12.000: Pit Stop or Market Top?

Published on January 25, 2011 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: .

The tug-of-war between the U.S. stock market’s bulls and bears continues, and the next demarcation line appears to be the psychologically-significant Dow 12.000 level.

The market’s bulls argue that the worst financial and economic news is behind us, and that the Dow’s recent rise from about the 9.500 level in July to near 12.000 this winter is a signal by institutional investors that better days are ahead.

The market’s bears argue that the substantially smaller U.S. workforce, stagnant incomes in many job segments, an economy that’s short – - at minimum — about 15 million full-time jobs, and that lingering problem — a housing market still trying to stabilise amid an above-normal foreclosure rate — mean the Dow is sending a false signal, and is headed for a fall [Source].

Chinese I.P.O. Bubble?

Published on December 14, 2010 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .

China-based companies have gone public on the U.S. market in record numbers in 2010. Last week, shares of Youku, called the YouTube of China, rose 161 percent in the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. E-commerce China Dangdang, an online retailer heralded as the Chinese Amazon.com, popped 87 percent after its initial public offering the same day.

Amid a sluggish I.P.O. market, companies from China are finding a home in the United States. Last week, six Chinese stocks started trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, the most ever in a single week. The 35 Chinese offerings so far this year have accounted for 23 percent of I.P.O.’s in the United States, up from 1 percent in 2000, according to Thomson Reuters.

The trick for investors— as in the late 1990s dot-com bubble — is separating the future Amazons from the Pets.coms. While I.P.O.’s can make investment bankers and founders rich, regular investors who do not get the initial price rarely make the same returns.

[Source 1] [Source 2]

General Motors I.P.O. now World’s Biggest

Published on November 27, 2010 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: .

General Motors Co’s underwriters exercised their full overallotment option, making the initial public offering of the U.S. automaker the biggest in the world, at $23.1 billion. GM has now raised $23.1 billion, outpacing Agricultural Bank of China’s $22.1 billion July IPO and making GM the biggest IPO globally [Source].

The largest IPO in U.S. history, came a year and a half after the U.S. government rescued the automaker and forced a massive overhaul. It also marked the beginning of the end of the government’s 61 percent ownership stake in the company, which the Obama administration said it hopes to shed entirely by mid-to-late 2012 [Source].

Newfound Strength in Frontier Markets

Published on November 15, 2010 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Frontier investing is a new-enough phenomenon that professionals disagree on which countries make up the sector. Different managers and index providers include different names. The Guggenheim Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), for example, has Chile and Poland among its top five holdings, though neither is part of the MSCI Frontier Index. The index includes such diverse countries as Argentina, Romania, Kenya and Kazakhstan. See also this post.

Even if you believe that frontier countries will grow far faster than the developed world, you have to deal with the practicalities, including cost, of investing in them, he said. Frontier funds tend to be more expensive than average and have short records.

Almost everyone, including MSCI, puts Nigeria in the frontier category. “I get people asking, ‘Who’s the next Brazil?’ “said Adam J. Kutas, manager of the Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa fund. “I answer without hesitation that it’s Nigeria,”.

Investors Explore the Frontier Markets

Published on April 15, 2010 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This year the real action for risk-tolerant global investors is on the frontier.

The MSCI Barra Frontier Markets index tracks equities of 25 countries, including six in the Middle East that account for 55% of the index’s total market capitalization. Year-to-date as of Apr. 12, the Frontier Markets index was up 13.66% compared with a 4.09% gain by the BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China, and Russia) in aggregate and a 5.25% increase for the emerging markets overall.

The distinction between emerging and frontier markets mostly concerns size and how far along they are in developing legal and regulatory systems, critical elements for international investors [Source].

More on Frontier Markets van be found here:
Frontier Markets: To boldly go where few investors have gone before!

MSCI Frontier Markets Indices.

Stock Markets Recover in 2009

Published on January 2, 2010 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .

sp500_09

Stock markets around the world staged a recovery in 2009 since March, when most of them hit their lows for the year. It was a year in which governments and central banks around the world took extraordinary measures to get their economies growing.

US share prices also performed well. Despite a drop of about 1% of all Wall Street indexes during the last trading hour on New Year’s Eve, the broad-based S&P 500 index was up nearly 25%, the strongest performance since 2003, while the Dow Jones gained 20%. The technology-driven Nasdaq index doubled those gains, rallying 45%. [Source 1] [Source 2]

John Thain on the Financial Crisis and Beyond

Published on November 6, 2009 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain offers his opinions as to what caused the crisis, what can be done to prevent it from happening again, and when it will be over — not just for the financial industry but also for Main Street. This lecture consist out of three videos, which include Thain’s remarks to the audience, questions from the three-member panel and, finally, questions from the audience.

Part 1-3 (Thain’s introduction)
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Part 2-3 (Questions from the Panel)
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Part 3-3 (Questions from the audience)
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The New Masters of Wall Street

Published on October 19, 2009 in High Tech & Media and International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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A brash new generation of traders is making a fortune by remaking financial markets. An outgrowth of Chicago’s derivatives markets, they go by wonky names like Global Electronic Trading Co., Tradebot and Infinium. Personnel include mathematicians, engineers and gamers. They bet their own capital on sophisticated software algorithms that spit out thousands of orders a second. Big Wall Street brokerages and hedge funds pursue similar strategies.

E.g. from the get-go the strategy was to trade fast, furiously and electronically. Getco’s first point of attack was futures, which went electronic early. Tierney and Schuler programmed their computers, and the people manning them, to offer quotes and execute trades more quickly than rivals. Then, when the market moves, to do it again. By posting bids and offers for the same securities simultaneously, they are able to scoop up a spread of a tenth or a hundredth of a penny per share thousands of times a day while limiting the capital at risk. What Getco gives up by capping its risk it makes up for in volume. The company currently trades an estimated 1.5 billion shares a day with 220 employees and offices in Chicago, New York, London and Singapore.

[Source]