Investment allocation to private equity by Japanese companies is expected to rise over the next two to five years, according to a study completed by Adveq, the Swiss private equity fund of funds manager, together with Kyoto University.
A new Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Personal Finance Poll found that while 90 percent of U.S. adults say they plan to retire, more than one in five (22%) have not yet taken any steps to plan for this event. Among single households, this figure rises, with 41 percent of respondents yet to begin planning for retirement. In fact, 10 percent of respondents in this poll say they do not plan to retire at all.
The Conference Board announced today that the leading index for Germany increased 0.1 percent and the coincident index increased 0.2 percent in December.
The industry’s revenue for the year 2005 was approximately $7,290,000,000. The gross profit was 45.52% at $3,318,408,000. There were 516 establishments in this industry that year. Thus, average contribution (or revenue) per establishment annually was $14,137,000.
In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production grew by 0.5% in both the euro area (EA12) and the EU252 in December 2006, compared to the previous month. In November 2006, production increased by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU25.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area rose by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2006, up from 0.5% in the previous quarter, according to preliminary estimates.
NYSE Group, Inc. announced that 16 new iShares® ETFs transferred their primary listing from the American Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange as part of the previously announced agreement with iShares in 2005. The addition of these products solidifies NYSE Group, Inc. as the world’s premier venue for ETF listings and trading, with 165 primary listings while handling 43% of all ETF shares traded in the U.S. market in 2006.
The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. and First Trust Advisors L.P. have announced the launch of two new exchange traded funds (ETFs) - the First Trust NASDAQ® Clean Edge® U.S. Liquid Series Index Fund and the First Trust NASDAQ-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index Fund. They are based on the NASDAQ® Clean Edge® U.S. Liquid Series Index and the NASDAQ-100 Ex-Tech Sector IndexSM, respectively. The ETFs are managed by First Trust Advisors L.P. and listed on NASDAQ®.
Compared to developed countries, China’s eight-year-old fund industry, though still small in size, is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. This can be seen from the total NAV of China’s funds, which increased more than 80 times from 1998 to 2006.
