The REIT ETF space offers a compelling mirror for where the overall real estate space is headed, especially as the global economic outlook darkens as we move into summer. Indeed, with growing economic and job uncertainty, performance of REIT ETFs has been on the decline...
As interest in corporate credit grows, dealers don’t have the products on hand to supply the increasing demand according to Reuters. That has pushed all that institutional cash into ETFs that own high-yield bonds.
$100 equity investment helps bank push across Canada.
It’s looking like another gloomy week for global markets as investors react to a trifecta of problems, including disappointing growth data from the U.S. and China and ongoing pain in Spain. All this probably means another bumpy ride this summer. Which is why low volatility ETFs are getting a lot of press right now.
One step forward, two steps back. That phrase seems to sum up 2011 for Canada’s Top 40 money managers. On the DB side, plan sponsors enjoyed improved returns but remain shackled as historic lows in interest rates exacerbate deficits.
The advent of institutional money is often seen as the hallmark of a maturing asset class – hedge funds for example have experienced a wave of institutional investment that has seen the industry grow exponentially and, at the same time, change dramatically, as big investors bring big demands for things like transparency, liquidity and better regulation. Big money is also making waves in the ETF space and some of those waves are proving damaging to smaller investors. Credit rating agency Moody’s is warning that large institutional block trades in ETFs can hammer the value of ETFs, pushing prices down as investors such as pension funds seek to shed their positions in these passive vehicles.
It’s happening, slowly but surely. ETFs are claiming a bigger share of the institutional space as investors, including many pension funds, find new ways to use them strategically. They're using them to manage liquidity and even boost portfolio diversification.
China is looking to open its doors to foreign pension funds, giving them room to invest in Chinese capital markets in the future. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, notes that the new channel would be separate from the existing Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program.
Research from U.K.-based Pension Corporation shows that trustees of the country’s DB pension funds could receive more than £100 billion in deficit reduction payments from their corporate sponsors over the next three years, or 13% of U.K. corporate cash holdings.
UK trustees concerned about market volatility but are under-hedged against longevity, investment and inflation.