Dave Gedeon, NASDAQ OMX’s Head of Research, will present “Commodities and Equities — The Changing Relationship” at the BOOST ETP/APCIMS CPD Manchester Regional Seminar, on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, at the Brewin Dolphin offices. This free event, which is CPD certified, will be the first of several Boost ETP regional seminars.
The seminar focuses on the current climate of the ETF market and provides insight into what industry specialists think the sector holds for investors. In addition to Gedeon, Rick van Leeuwen, ETF Sales Trading at IMC will present on “ETFs – What to Look Out For” and Hector McNeil, Co–CEO at Boost ETP, will present on “ETFs & ETPs – The Next Generation.”
The free Boost ETP CPD-certified Regional Seminar will also be held in Jersey on May 16, 2013; Birmingham on May 23, 2013; Leeds TBC; and Edinburgh TBC. Visit www.boostetp.com for more information.
Boost ETP has a dozen products based off of NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes.
2012-2013 are big years in the transition to a Green Economy, though mainstream media headlines may not reflect it. While many focus on the boom in natural gas, the growth in wind and solar are certainly deserving of similar headlines. Record-breaking installations over the past few years have boosted renewable energy as the supplier of almost 16% of U.S. electrical generating capacity, more than nuclear and oil combined.
In March 2013, renewable energy accounted for 100% of all new electrical capacity in the U.S., and 82% for the first quarter as a whole. 1546 megawatts (MW) of renewables came online, compared to 340 MW of natural gas — according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), in the form of six wind farms (958 MW), 38 solar farms (537 MW) and 28 biomass plants (46 MW). The solar added is more than double that of the first quarter last year. In 2012, renewables accounted for almost half of all new electrical generating capacity — 46.22%. And this doesn’t count the growth of small rooftop solar systems.
Read the entire article here.
Written by: Rona Fried, Ph.D. is CEO of SustainableBusiness.com, providing green business news and green jobs online since 1996. She builds the universe of eligible components based on the index methodology for NASDAQ’s Green Economy Index.
The Green Economy, broadly comprised of companies committed to renewable energy production, energy management, sustainable farming, resource harvesting and other segments, saw its last peak in price valuation at the end of 2007. This sector performance was extremely strong, showing outsized gains versus the broad market in the equity rally of 2005 to 2007.
While the market as a whole severely declined in 2007 and 2008, the Green indexes lost an even larger percentage of value than other sectors. Between June 2008 and June 2009 the NASDAQ U.S. Benchmark index (NQUSB) went down 27.43% while the NASDAQ Green Index (QGREEN) decreased 36.18%. NQUSB recovered and has gained nearly 75% since June 2009, while the Green index gained 46.83%. However, some sectors within the Green Economy continued to decline; the NASDAQ OMX Generation Index (GRNREG) lost an additional 41.88% after the broad equity market bottom in March 2009.
During that time, losses continued and outflows on green-related exchange-traded products (ETPs) increased, even as broad market equities were gaining significantly.
Just recently though a sliver of green has been seen in the index performance of the green sectors and it appears a bottom has finally been achieved. September 2012 marked the lowest point for the broad Green index and many of its sector indexes. Since that lowest level, the indexes have strongly rallied:
Many of the indexes within the broad green economy are now outperforming the broader U.S. market.
NASDAQ OMX is proud to welcome a new Silver ETP, the CreditSuisse Silver Shares Covered Call Exchange Traded Note (SLVO). SLVO will track to the CreditSuisse NASDAQ SilverFLOWS106 Index (QSLVO).
SLVO gives investors an opportunity to add physical silver shares to their investment portfolio through a covered call strategy. In this approach income is generated from premiums paid by call options on long positions. This ETN is similar to the CreditSuisse Gold Shares Covered Call ETN (GLDI) that launched on NASDAQ last quarter.
The SilverFLOWS106 Index can be found in the NASDAQ Dividend and Income Index Family,
The IBB (iShares NASDAQ Biotech, Expense Ratio 0.48%), the largest ETF in the biotech category, has surged this week to trade at a new all-time highs this morning. According to ETF Trends, IBB’s performance this year alone has more than doubled that of the S&P 500. The performance of the top holdings in IBB (REGN, GILD, AMGN and CELG) are leading the way for this ETF as the sector continues to do well. Read more from ETF Trends.
Listen to a call with Dave Gedeon, NASDAQ OMX Managing Director and Head of Research, for an in-depth look behind the NASDAQ Commodity Index (NQCI), the methodology and further explanation of the roll variants. The event was sponsored by Boost ETP.
Today marks the 100th day of the year, so we’re celebrating with a nod to the NASDAQ-100®, one of the most popular indexes in the global economy.
NDX is comprised of the 100 largest non-financial securities listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market® (NASDAQ®), based on market capitalization, and is a barometer for large cap growth. The Index reflects companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology.
The NASDAQ-100 contains the household names leading the new economy forward. Among the top holdings: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Google Inc. (GOOG), Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
The fundamental data behind NDX has drastically improved over the past few years despite a volatile economy and the greatest financial market collapse since the Great Depression.
As of year-end, earnings, the most basic number to value a company, have skyrocketed, showing maturation of the companies as they increase revenues but reduce costs. Costs have been controlled, shares were bought back, dividends have increased and P/E has contracted.
The shift in fundamentals of the NASDAQ-100 has resulted in significant outperformance over other US large cap indexes over time. Click here to see how NDX has performed these past 100 days. Also see PowerShares‘ QQQ ETF (QQQ)
According to an article in today's ETF Trends , MDIV (First Trust Multi-Asset Diversified Income, Expense Ratio 0.60%) is one of the best performers year to date in the category, and volume has swelled to more than 213,000 shares on an average daily basis. The ETF is making a name for itself in a little under a year of live trading history. It fits into the “Multi-Asset” or “Diversified Portfolio” categories.
According to the article, "...the ETF is challenging all-time highs as volume has certainly stepped up in the past month or so, and this product is designed to track the NASDAQ Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index, which invests in a broad array of income producing securities (read yield), including domestic and internationally listed equities, REITS, MLPs, preferred stocks as well as a household name ETF, HYG (iShares High Yield Corporate Bond, Expense Ratio 0.50%)."
Technology stocks and dividends were not synonymous just a few years ago. As the technology secotr has matured with increases in earnings, cash holdings, and stable levels of debt, returns to shareholders with dividend payments have substantially increased. In Q2 2013, Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, will join the ranks of dividend payers by reinstating dividend payments; yield is expected to be around 1.8%. Apple joins other major technology names like Microsoft, Cisco and Intel, who have become strong dividend players over the years.
The tech dividend story is not limited to a handful of names; the entire sector has seen significant growth in dividend payments and was the fastest growing sector of dividends paid in the past five years.
Between 2005 and 2012, the technology sector of the NASDAQ U.S. Benchmark Index has increased its dividend value paid out by 326%. The next closest sector is Consumer Services at 139%. The gains in the Technology sector dividend payments have also been more consistent compared to other sectors. The financial sector experienced rapid increases with a 33% increase between 2005 and 2008, but then a large 55% decline between 2008 and 2012.
Technology companies have been able to maintain and increase dividends due to the cash flows generated from their businesses. Looking at cash and marketable investments on hand, technology is the second largest sector behind financials with $58 billion. Technology companies have significant cash holdings and minimal creditors and as such are in the best position, compared to other sectors. Read the full report here
