| CME bid spurs fears of merger monster
THE commodities boom is intensifying the merger mania among the world's financial exchanges. But the $US11 billion ($12.4 billion) bid by CME Group to acquire Nymex Holdings may fuel worries that consolidation is leaving the survivors with too much power. A purchase of the 135-year-old New York Mercantile Exchange's owner by CME, parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, would create the largest exchange in the world, with a stock market value of about $US45 billion. And acquiring Nymex's crude oil futures, one of the largest commodity contracts in the world, would fill the last major hole in the 110-year-old Chicago exchange's product line-up, while squeezing remaining rivals in the energy market. The deal also highlights some unsettling consequences of the global scramble for alliances and market share in trading financial securities.
American Stock Exchange Lists GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index ...
NEW YORK, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Stock Exchange(R) (Amex(R)) announced today that it has launched trading in the GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (AMEX: GCC) , managed by GreenHaven Commodity Services, LLC. GCC aims to track the performance of the Continuous Commodity Total Return Index, an equal weighted basket of 17 commodities (corn, wheat, soybeans, live cattle, lean hogs, gold, platinum, silver, copper, cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, orange juice, crude oil, heating oil and natural gas). Reuters America, LLC owns and calculates the Index. "The American Stock Exchange is pleased to welcome and support GreenHaven as they enter the ETF marketplace," said Scott Ebner, Senior Vice President of the Amex's ETF marketplace. "GCC reflects a growing investor interest in commodity linked products." Ashmead Pringle, President of GreenHaven Commodity Services, LLC, stated, "Increasingly, many investors have concluded that commodities are an asset class that should be represented in a balanced portfolio.
Barclays Launches Eight Commodity Sub-Sector iPath(R) Exchange Traded ...
NEW YORK, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Barclays Bank PLC announced today the launch of eight new iPath(R) Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) on the NYSE Arca stock exchange. The iPath ETNs are the first Exchange Traded Notes designed to offer exposure to sub-indexes of the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index(SM). They are linked to agriculture, copper, energy, grains, industrial metals, livestock, natural gas, and nickel. "The new iPath sub-sector ETNs provide investors with access to harder-to- reach markets," said Philippe El-Asmar, Head of Investor Solutions, Americas at Barclays Capital. "Investments in iPath Exchange Traded Notes surpassed $3.6 billion in just under 16 months from inception, and we believe these new ETNs will continue to attract attention particularly with daily creations and redemptions available since October 1, 2007." "The new iPath ETNs demonstrate Barclays continued commitment to providing investors with innovative investment solutions to the commodity markets," added Benoit de Vitry, Head of Commodities, Emerging Markets Rates and Quantitative Analytics at Barclays Capital.
Wall Street advances sharply
Gold futures hit a record, briefly venturing above $913 an ounce as the dollar tumbled against other major currencies. The euro reached a new high above $1.49.Other commodities were higher, too. Crude oil rose $1.51 to settle at $94.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Peter Dunay, investment strategist at Leeb Capital Management, believes the run in commodities prices will continue as Wall Street eyes what the Federal Reserve will do at its Jan. 29-30 meeting. Chairman Ben Bernanke has convinced investors the central bank will cut rates, and the expectation of cheaper money also bolstered sentiment Monday``We're expecting inflation to be a problem, and believe the commodity demand is going to continue,'' Dunay said. ``We think the Fed is going to throw as much money as they can to keep us out of recession, or keep the recession mild, so commodities will be higher.''Stocks sold off sharply last week after a chorus of Wall Street economists predicted the U.S.
NYSE takes stake in India’s MCX
NYSE Euronext has bought a 5 per cent stake in India's largest commodities exchange, expanding its presence in the fast-growing economy. The US group, which runs New York Stock Exchange, also has a stake in India's biggest stock market. .
'MAD' JIM CRAMER LOSES GOLDEN $50K BET
The host of CNBC's "Mad Money" now owes $50,000 after losing one of the worst wagers of his entire career to rival trading wiz Eric Bolling. Cramer, who favors the phrase "Boo Ya," made an on-air bet with Bolling about a year ago that financial services would be the hottest sector of 2007. Bolling, a former trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange, placed his money on oil and gold. Investors who took Cramer's advice would have taken a 30 percent hit to their portfolios as the stocks of financial titans such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch got hammered by the mortgage crisis. On the other hand, investors savvy enough to follow Bolling's bet on gold and oil would have hit the jackpot, as the hot commodities jumped over 60 percent in the same period. Cramer, through a spokesman, blamed his loss on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's failure to cut interest rates more aggressively.
Fame comes with a lot of baggage
Eight severe flood warnings were declared after some areas had the equivalent of a month's rain in an hour. Meanwhile, mudslides engulfed the Aberdeenshire coastal village of Pennan, famous for locations in the film Local Hero. Villagers fled in the darkness as hundreds of tonnes of waterlogged soil and silt swept down a hillside. Amazingly, the 34 residents of ten cottages in the torrent's immediate path escaped unscathed.President Mahmoud Ambadanmad of Iran was lucky to leave unscathed when he told his audience at America's Columbia University: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you we have it."The Borat of the Middle East was responding to a question about the execution of two gay men. Later, he declared his US tour a roaring success, with the New York Daily News describing him as "evil", and Colombia University's president praising him as "astonishingly uneducated".Back in Iran, two men convicted of murdering a hardline judge were hanged from cranes in a Tehran street.
'Unsafe sleep' leads to infants' deaths
Massachusetts' former chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, who was part of the state's Child Fatality Review Team, found unsafe sleeping environments of such a concern that he sent a letter to pediatricians early last year.Flomenbaum wrote in his letter, "Although it appears that most parents and caregivers are placing their infants to sleep on their backs, we are continuing to see a number of babies whose deaths are associated with unsafe sleeping environments. In fact, since I took office in April 2005, we have seen at least 32 such deaths. Some of the unsafe sleeping environments include situations where infants were sleeping with their parents and/or siblings, left sleeping in car seat carriers, left to sleep on soft (adult) pillows, bedding, or couches or allowed to lay on the chest of a parent who fell asleep.
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