Feature
Weather and force majeure - Force majeure provisions for power contracts
Hurricane Ike left many wholesale power purchasers facing serious financial losses if they could not invoke the force majeure clause in their contracts. Stan Jensen and Jonathan Hoff of Bracewell & Giuliani discuss different elements of force majeure…
Special Report Carbon Trading - US carbon market policy play
Carbon trading is gaining renewed support from the new US administration, but at the same time, it must contend with recession. Pauline McCallion discusses the outlook for current trading schemes and their likely interaction with any federal compliance…
Farming fundamentals
While the ailing global economy is pressuring industrial commodity prices, the agricultural grains markets have some very different fundamental drivers, some of which appear fairly supportive, finds Pauline McCallion
Special Report Carbon Trading - Africa CDM - Africa's green potential
Home to only 2% of the world's CDM projects, Africa is lagging way behind countries such as India, China and Brazil. Katie Holliday looks at why this is and asks whether there is now investment potential in the African CDM market
US Wrap: Alternative structures fail to break accelerated growth run
Yesterday marked the fourth consecutive day in the US structured products market which saw accelerated growth structures make an exclusive appearance. Two products were linked to the S&P 500 index, issued by JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, with the latter…
Dow Jones offers South Asian Federation indexes
Index provider Dow Jones Indexes and the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (Safe) have launched the Dow Jones Safe 100 Index and the Dow Jones Safe Pakistan Index, which measure the performance of blue-chip companies in five of the eight member states…
CDS: Spreads continue to narrow on US banks, BofA tightens 13%
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (Wednesday March 11)
SunTrust broadens exposure with deposit product
SunTrust Bank has launched a certificate of deposit (CD) for US investors which offers exposure to a World Basket of US, Japanese and European equity indexes. The five-year CDs pay a minimum fixed return of 3% at maturity, plus 100% of initial investor…
US Wrap: S&P 500 slips into minority as issuers hit the accelerator
Accelerated growth structures put in another strong appearance yesterday, representing the only structure on offer in five new issues for the second day in a row. The S&P 500 was an underlying for only one of the structures, as exposure continues to…
CDS: Spreads tighten on US banks
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (Tuesday March 10)
CDS: No respite for BofA and Citi
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (Monday March 9)
S&P offers carbon efficiency
Index provider Standard & Poor's has launched the first in a series of global low carbon indexes. The S&P US Carbon Efficient Index is designed to provide exposure to the performance of large-cap US companies with low carbon emissions, while aiming to…
Morgan Stanley launches protected growth plan
Morgan Stanley has launched the latest tranche of its FTSE Protected Growth plan, which is designed to provide exposure to the FTSE 100 index with 100% capital protection. The six-year trade offers 100% participation in any positive performance of the…
iShares launches four fixed income ETF
iShares has launched four new fixed income exchange traded funds on the London Stock Exchange offering access to investment grade debt, corporate bonds, G7 bonds and to the shortest-dated European government instruments.
Barclays Wealth begins move towards product pricing for investors
Barclays Wealth has launched a semi-annual valuations service for structured products investors, which allows them to capture a snapshot of how their investment is performing. The online document freezes the performance of the underlying on a certain…
US Wrap: Morgan Stanley punctuates end of accelerated growth week
A single accelerated growth product was listed in the US market on Friday, bringing a close to a week that was dominated by the structures. Morgan Stanley offered an alternative to the whitewash of S&P 500-linked products that has been available in…
Single Family Offices reduce equities, increase cash, and ETF education
Education will increase the allocation that family offices in Europe make to structured products and exchange traded funds (ETFs), says Gary Dugan, chief investment officer EMEA of Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Bruce Love of Campden Research…