ETFS Multi-Asset Weekly Europe Preparing for Quantitative Easing
Highlights
Persistent cold forecasts drive up natural gas prices
Hopes of quantitative easing boost European equities.
Shock and awe. The SNB’s surprise moves on Thursday sent the Swiss Franc close to parity with the Euro, a 17% movement in the pair on the day.
The Swiss National Bank shocked the market by removing its 1.20 cap on the Swiss Franc against the Euro. Central banks will remain in the limelight with the European Central Bank widely expected to announce full-blown quantitative easing this week after years of resisting following the US on this path. Discussion of the modalities of the programme will no doubt drive asset price rallies – the direction dependent on how inclusive or restrictive the programme will be. Meanwhile a raft of Chinese data releases including Q4 2014 GDP will be closely observed as the market looks for further cues on where global growth will go in 2015.
Commodities
Persistent cold forecasts drive up natural gas prices. Natural gas prices surged 6.7% on predictions that cold weather conditions in the US would continue into the upcoming week. This raised market expectations of increased heating demand from the Northeast and Midwest regions of the US. Conversely, copper ended the week down -7.7% amidst selling on Asian markets spurred by the World Bank reducing its forecasts for global growth this year to 3.0% from 3.4% previously. Copper is broadly considered a barometer for global economic health due to its broad industrial applications. Finally, crude benchmarks continued to fall this week with Brent and WTI ending the week down -7.3% and -5.0% respectively as US crude inventory figures showed that oil stores are at their highest levels in 80 years . The asymmetric decline in prices caused WTI to temporarily trade at a premium to Brent, reflecting early signs that current falling prices are causing US producers to curb production.
Equities
Hopes of quantitative easing boost European equities. A ruling by the European Court of Justice increased the likelihood that a QE program will be revealed at the next central bank meeting on the 22nd January. Markets cheered the move sending European stocks higher with the German DAX rallying 1.9% in the week. The QE program is aimed at preventing the Eurozone slipping into deflation as energy prices continue to fall. Bullion ended the week up 3.6% as market volatility stimulated safe haven demand following a shock announcement by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) stating that it was abandoning its currency cap of 1.2 CHF against the Euro. The rise in the gold price buoyed the DAXglobal Gold Mining Index which finished the week up 8.3%. Both the FTSE 100 and the Solactive US Energy Infrastructure MLP Index were dragged lower by falling copper and oil prices.
Currencies
Shock and awe. The SNB’s surprise moves on Thursday sent the Swiss Franc close to parity with the Euro, a 17% movement in the pair on the day. The Swiss central bank is no doubt preparing for the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) full-blown quantitative easing (QE) programme which is widely expected to be announced this week at ECB’s policy meeting. In contrast to the US Federal Reserve, which had trodden on this path before, the ECB will need to buy sovereign debts from many Member States. There are many questions that will need to be answered in this policy meeting: How big will the programme will be?; Which country’s bonds will it buy?; Will the ECB buy the bonds itself or delegate the task to the Member States’ national central banks? After the SNB’s moves last week, the Euro had appeared to price in a fairly aggressive move by the ECB and any disappointment in the scale of the programme could drive the Euro higher over the short term.
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Amundi MSCI World Minimum Volatility Screened Factor UCITSETFUCITSETFAcc (WMMV ETF) med ISIN IE0001DKJVC2, försöker spåra MSCI World Minimum Volatility Select ESG Low Carbon Target-index. MSCI World Minimum Volatility ESG Reduced Carbon Target-index spårar aktier från utvecklade länder över hela världen som är valda enligt låg volatilitet och ESG-kriterier (miljö, social och företagsstyrning). Indexet har som mål att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser och ett förbättrat ESG-poäng jämfört med jämförelseindex. Jämförelseindex är MSCI World-index.
Den börshandlade fondens TER (total cost ratio) uppgår till 0,25 % p.a. Amundi MSCI World Minimum Volatility Screened Factor UCITSETFUCITSETFAcc är den enda ETF som följer MSCI World Minimum Volatility Select ESG Low Carbon Target-index. ETFen replikerar det underliggande indexets prestanda genom fullständig replikering (köper alla indexbeståndsdelar). Utdelningarna i ETF:n ackumuleras och återinvesteras.
Denna ETF lanserades den 30 oktober 2024 och har sin hemvist i Irland.
Investeringsmål
Amundi MSCI World Minimum Volatility Screened Factor UCITSETFAcc försöker replikera, så nära som möjligt, oavsett om trenden är stigande eller fallande, resultatet för MSCI World Minimum Volatility Select ESG Low Carbon Target Index (”Indexet”). Delfondens mål är att uppnå en tracking error-nivå för delfonden och dess index som normalt inte kommer att överstiga 1 %.
Det betyder att det går att handla andelar i denna ETF genom de flesta svenska banker och Internetmäklare, till exempel DEGIRO, Nordnet, Aktieinvest och Avanza.
· UBS Asset Management lanserar EUR och USD Treasury Yield Plus UCITS ETFer
· ETFerna syftar till att öka avkastningen samtidigt som riskegenskaperna hos deras referensindex bibehålls
· En egenutvecklad regelbaserad modell används för att bredda investeringsuniversumet för att förbättra tillgången till en större uppsättning möjligheter
UBS Asset Management (UBS AM) tillkännager idag lanseringen av två nya ETF:er som syftar till att leverera förbättrad avkastning, samtidigt som riskprofilen för deras underliggande statsobligationsindex bevaras. UBS EUR Treasury Yield Plus UCITSETF och UBS USD Treasury Yield Plus UCITSETF syftar till att överträffa sina respektive Bloomberg Treasury-index genom att rikta in sig på högre optionsjusterad spread (OAS), samtidigt som de bibehåller en strikt anpassning till duration, kreditkvalitet och landsexponering1.
Portföljkonstruktion
· Universumsdefinition: Varje ETF börjar med sitt respektive Bloomberg Treasury Index (EUR eller USD) och utökar uppsättningen möjligheter till att inkludera högkvalitativa statsobligationer, överstatliga obligationer och agentobligationer (SSA), vilka kan erbjuda en högre avkastning än statsobligationer. · Optimering: SSA-obligationerna väljs ut med hjälp av en egenutvecklad regelbaserad modell som maximerar OAS samtidigt som strikta begränsningar för rating, land, sektor, duration och kurvrisk följs.
· Dynamisk allokering: Portföljförvaltaren kan använda sitt eget omdöme för att ytterligare förbättra portföljens avkastning och/eller riskprofil.
André Mueller, chef för kundtäckning, UBS AM, sa: ”De snabbt ökande tillgångarna i förbättrade ränte-ETF:er signalerar en växande investerarefterfrågan på fonder som går utöver traditionella passiva riktmärken. UBS AM har långvarig expertis inom regelbaserade strategier, så jag är glad att vi för första gången kan erbjuda denna möjlighet till ett bredare spektrum av kunder genom det bekväma, transparenta och effektiva ETF-omslaget.”
Fonden är registrerad för försäljning i Österrike, Danmark, Finland, Frankrike, Tyskland, Irland, Italien, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Nederländerna, Norge, Spanien, Sverige, Schweiz och Storbritannien.