By Carl Delfeld of Chartwell ETF & ETF Passport
Exchange traded products could grow by more than a fifth this year, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. ETF assets passed the $1,000bn mark last month as investors allocated money away from active managers. “In the event the bullish equity markets continue in 2010, we expect total assets will comfortably reach the $1.3-1.4 trillion territory,” says Christos Costandinides, ETF strategist at Deutsche. In 2009, assets under management in ETFs grew by 43.8 percent, boosted by a greater than 20 percent rise in global equities. BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund business iShares, acquired with BGI, saw its assets under management increase $170.9bn during the year to $495.5bn.
On the U.S. front, the GDP grew at a surprising adjusted annual rate of 5.7 percent in the last quarter of 2009, a sharp acceleration from the 2.2 percent increase in the prior quarter.
On the other hand, the number of people filing first-time unemployment claims dropped by 8,000 to 470,000 last week; analysts had expected a drop of 32,000. That fueled concerns that job growth may be farther away than previously thought, as investors look ahead to the release of January employment data. A report on long-lasting goods like cars and computers showed that the recovery in manufacturing was steady but still moderate. Overall, durable goods orders rose 0.3 percent in December, falling short of Wall Street expectations of a 2 percent increase.
The financial crisis took a heavy toll on US universities, whose endowments returned an average of negative 18.7 percent last year as investments and gifts declined, according to figures published on Thursday.
Poland (PLND) is set on Thursday to launch reform measures aimed at reducing the budget deficit, public debt and the future pensions bill as the country seeks to build on its success as the only European Union member to have avoided recession in the global downturn. The Polish economy grew by an estimated 1.5 per cent last year and Prime Minister Mr. Tusk described the recent economic performance as “possibly the largest success in Polish history”. He added: “Who would have thought we would see the day when the Polish economy is talked about with greater respect than the German economy?”
Chile signed on Thursday to become the 31st member of the OECD, – becoming the first South American nation to do so. But don’t get carried away as Greece and Iceland are members of OECD as well.
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