Tel Aviv Disrupt may carry Israel to MSCI Europe ETFs

Posted on August 27, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from ETFTrends.com and Tom Lydon

In an attempt to gain acceptance into broad MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) Europe indices, and potentially into related exchange traded funds, Israel’s Tel Aviv Stock Exchange could end its Sunday open schedule and switch over to Western trading days.

Julien Assous, chief executive officer of Israel Brokerage & Investments and a member of the TASE board of directors, revealed that the bourse is considering changing the exchange’s Sunday-to-Thursday trading days, following feedback from MSCI about potential hurdles for wider acceptance, reports Gabrielle Coppola for Bloomberg.

The TASE board is contemplating shifting open days to a Monday-through-Friday schedule. Continue reading →

Biotech ETFs go Skyward post InterMune-Roche Deal

Posted on August 26, 2014August 26, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from zacks.com and Sweta Killa

InterMune (ITMN - Snapshot Report) was a star performer in Monday trading session, as the stock skyrocketed more than a third on the day. The massive gain for this biotech firm came after the Swiss drug maker Roche Holding (RHHBY - Analyst Report) agreed to buy InterMune for $8.3 billion.

As per the deal, Roche will pay $74 per share in cash, which represents 38% premium to the ITMN closing price as of August 22 and 63% premium to the price on August 12 when the potential takeover of InterMune was initiated. The deal is expected to close by the year end (read: A Comprehensive Guide to Biotech ETFs).

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Wedbush Securities in Hot Water with SEC over AML Deficiencies

Posted on August 20, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from tradersmagazine.com and John D’Antona Jr.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced Monday that it has filed a complaint against Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities Inc. for systemic supervisory and anti-money laundering (AML) violations in connection with providing direct market access and sponsored access to broker-dealers and non-registered market participants.

During the period at issue, Wedbush was one of the securities industry’s largest market access providers, which included overseas high-frequency, high-volume, algorithmic day-trading firms, and made millions of dollars from its market access business.

The complaint alleges that from January 2008 through August 2013, Wedbush failed to dedicate sufficient resources to ensure appropriate risk management controls and supervisory systems and procedures. This enabled its market access customers to flood U.S. exchanges with thousands of potentially manipulative wash trades and other potentially manipulative trades, including manipulative layering and spoofing. Continue reading →

Southeastern Grocers Steps Out of IPO

Posted on August 19, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from 247wallst.com and Jon C. Ogg

A form “RW” was filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission by a company named Southeastern Grocers LLC on Tuesday. While this might not sound like much to most people, this means that the current owner and operator of supermarket chains Winn-Dixie and BI-LO has now formally withdrawn its plans to conduct an initial public offering. Southeastern Grocers is based in Jacksonville, Florida and it had first initially filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission almost a full year ago to conduct an initial public offering for up to $500,000,000 worth of common stock.

The original filing showed that the underwriters hired for the offering were to be Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, William Blair, and Wells Fargo Securities. Do we dare ask if their salespeople couldn’t sell yet one more grocery chain to the public – particularly one that had previously filed for bankruptcy.

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A Missed Step for Brazil ETFs

Posted on August 19, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from ETFTrends.com and Tom Lydon

Give the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWZ) some credit.

The largest exchange traded fund tracking Brazilian equities rose nearly 1.4% Monday, although volume was light, despite news that President Dilma Rousseff improved her showing in a recent poll.

Teneo Intelligence notes that “Rousseff’s approval rating has actually increased from 34 to 38% – a level that tends to auger very well for incumbents a couple of months before elections,” reports Dimitra DeFotis for Barron’s.

Financial markets have overtly displayed a preference for any candidate not named Rousseff ahead of Brazil’s October elections, typically pushing EWZ noticeably higher on days when polls are released showing waning support for the incumbent. That trend was bucked Monday when EWZ gained despite news of increased support for Rousseff. Continue reading →