We were pleased to see MDIV and YDIV, which are issued by First Trust and based on the NASDAQ US Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index and NASDAQ International Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index respectively, mentioned in a recent article regarding multi-asset ETFs. Indexers play a prominent role in the accelerating multi-asset marketplace. Underlying this trend are investors seeking higher yields in a low rate environment. However, they have demanded that it done in a thoughtful, risk-managed way. Assembling indexes of diverse, high-yielding asset classes using a transparent, rules-based methodology can help raise investor confidence that both goals are being addressed simultaneously.

Read more about the First Trust ETFs here.

At 2pm EST the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its latest monetary-policy meeting. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have been up for two straight days, while the NASDAQ Composite has had gains for the past five days.

“Markets are giving pause while awaiting the results from the most recent monetary-policy meeting from the Federal Reserve. Heading into today, the NASDAQ Composite has had five straight days of gains,” said David Krein, Head of Research, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes.

INDEX MOVES THIS WEEK

• NASDAQ BIOTECHNOLOGY INDEX (NBI) is up 1.63% since Friday’s close. Year-to-date performance for the index is up 18% after being above 20% at the end of February, and down 5% by mid-April. Celgene is up 3.7%, this week.
• NASDAQ CLEAN EDGE GREEN ENERGY (CELS) was up 2.21% as of noon Wednesday. Some of the index’s largest holdings include Tesla Motors, Linear Technology and First Solar.
• PHLX Gold/Silver Sector (XAU) was flat with a return of 0.01% as of noon Wednesday. The price of gold is currently $1,293 per ounce, down $12 from last week.

INDEX TO WATCH

• The NASDAQ Global Buyback Achievers Index is comprised of securities that have effected a net reduction in shares of 5% or more in the past year. The index currently includes 193 securities and some of the larger holdings include Home Depot, Oracle and Airbus Group. The index launched on August 11, 2014, and is up 1.3% this week.

Today, July US retail sales figures were released by the Commerce Department. According to the report, figures came in “virtually unchanged… from the previous month and 3.7 percent above July 2013.” Despite this report’s results, the US markets are up strongly this week with major US benchmarks up between 1% and 1.5%.

“The retail sales report points to an ongoing, though modest, consumer recovery. Though Q2 earnings season is largely behind us, recent strong announcements, such as Priceline on Monday, evidence how specific sectors are contributing to this picture,” said David Krein, Head of Research, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes.

INDEX MOVES THIS WEEK

• NASDAQ BIOTECHNOLOGY INDEX (NBI) is up 1.75% since Friday’s close. Year-to-date performance for the index is up 13% after being up above 20% at the end of February. Biogen and Gilead are up 2.71% and 2.14%, respectively, this week.
• NASDAQ CLEAN EDGE GREEN ENERGY (CELS) was up 1.54% as of noon on Wednesday. Some of the index’s largest holdings include Tesla Motors, Linear Technology and First Solar.
• PHLX Gold/Silver Sector (XAU) was up 2.17% as of noon on Wednesday. The price of gold is currently $1,308 per ounce.

INDEX TO WATCH

• The NASDAQ Composite (COMP) measures all NASDAQ domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. The index currently includes 2,555 securities and some of the largest holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Amazon and Facebook. The index is up 1.4% this week and 6% year-to-date.

The unemployment rate continues to fall, hitting 6.2% this month. Jason Furman, Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, takes this drop in unemployment as a good sign, but believes that wages still need to further increase. He states, “Over the last year or two, we have seen faster wage growth, but it’s still nowhere near the wage growth that we need.” According to the Financial Times, Fed Chair Janet Yellen agreed that the economy has registered “notable improvements” and argued that while the economy is not yet at full health, it is moving in the right direction.

“This is the busiest reporting week of the quarter for the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index. Ten companies, including Regeneron, the seventh largest stock in the Index, reported on August 5th; 15 companies report on August 6th; and 25 companies, including Mylan, the ninth largest stock in the Index, report on August 7th,” said David Krein, Head of Research, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes.

INDEX MOVES THIS WEEK

• NASDAQ BIOTECHNOLOGY INDEX (NBI) is up 1.3% since Friday’s close. Year-to-date performance for the index is up 12% after being up above 20% at the end of February. Amgen and Gilead are up 2.50% and 1.53%, respectively, this week.
• NASDAQ CLEAN EDGE GREEN ENERGY (CELS) was up 2.63% as of noon on Wednesday. Some of the index’s largest holdings include Tesla Motors, Linear Technology and First Solar.
• PHLX Gold/Silver Sector (XAU) was up 1.51% as of noon on Wednesday. The price of gold is currently $1,305 per ounce, up $11 this week.

INDEX TO WATCH

• NASDAQ Internet Index (QNET) consists of 98 securities engaged in internet-related services. Some of the largest holdings include Facebook, Google, Priceline and Amazon. The index is up 12% in the last three months and 22% in the last year.

The NASDAQ ASPA Ex Japan Index is July's top performer at 4.4% and the NASDAQ Commodity Natural Gas ER is the worst performer of July at -13.7%. Get a quick overview of NASDAQ OMX Index performance data for our top 50 most watched indexes here.

John Jacobs, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Information Services, addresses the the future of our indexing business in the fifth installment of his video series.

Transcript: Let’s take a look at where we think NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes will be in a year or two down the road. As a global indexer with multi-asset classes, our near term strategy is to continue to roll out our superior technology on two fronts: The ability to calculate more indexes across more asset classes, so you’ll see us adding in more asset classes like fixed income and commodities. And the ability to have a superior data offering. We’re going to be able to offer data in a far more convenient fashion to the end user in a better way than it’s ever been offered before. So those are two near-term strategies. In addition, there’s been a tremendous movement and demand from the buy side and the sell side, those firms on the street, and those ultimate investors, for more custom capabilities and calculation, and we’re going to be offering a lot more custom indexes to partner with different firms, so they can find exactly what they want for their investment thesis. Whether they want geography or style or some other asset class, we’ll be able to provide that for them. So you’ll see a lot of growth in the custom [indexing]. You’ll continue to see us roll out more exchange traded products. You’ll see more structured products, and you’ll see a richer data set come out from us, both price data and weights and components. We also have recently announced that we’re acquiring eSpeed, which is a fixed income business, so you’ll be seeing a rich data set from fixed income, on-the-run treasuries, and an index family as well. So the next one to two years is going to be a very exciting time for NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes as we continue to fill out our mandate of multi-asset class, a scalable technology solution, create a better value proposition, and the richest, most robust data set in the index business.

The entire NASDAQ Global Index Family is now accessible world-wide on Quandl, a leading open platform for financial and economic data on the internet. This makes NASDAQ OMX the first leading index provider to distribute its proprietary index level performance information on Quandl’s site, in a completely free, transparent and downloadable form.

“Providing easy, user friendly, flexible access to our data is a guiding principle of the NASDAQ Index Elite Partner Program,” said Oliver Albers, Head of Sales for Global Information Services. Quandl, trusted by thousands of professionals as a reliable data source, is the next generation data distribution model for financial services and we are excited to work with them to ensure all investors have the capability to access our high-quality index content.”

Via the Quandl platform, the entire NASDAQ Global Index Family will now be accessible directly from Excel, R, Python, Matlab and many other tools, as well as through a free and open API.

“We are very excited to join NASDAQ Elite Index Data Partner program. This partnership is fantastic for our 100,000 monthly users who now have access to a comprehensive suite of indexes from one of the world’s premier index providers,” said Tammer Kamel, CEO of Quandl. “NASDAQ’s coverage is total, giving Quandl users a complete index solution.”