EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 01 July 2010

The US House approved the financial reform bill yesterday in a 237-192 vote, but the Senate postponed its vote until after the July 4 weekend.

The SEC announced plans to include all Russell 1000 Index constituents and some ETFs in the circuit breaker program. "It is my hope to continue to expand the program to additional publicly traded companies," Chairman Schapiro said in a statement.

NYX: NYSE set new circuit breaker levels for Q3. The level 1 halt will stop trading for an hour if the DJIA drops 1,000 points before 2:00 p.m. ET or for 30 minutes if triggered between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. A level 2 halt will stop trading for two hours if the index fall 2,050 points before 1:00 p.m., one hour if it happens between 1:00 and 2:00 pm and for the rest of the day if it happens after 2:00. A level 3 halt will occur if the index drops over 3,050 points and will cease trading for the rest of the day regardless of timing.

NYX: NYSE Technologies will integrate data from Markit BOAT within its own range of market data products. The feeds will be available via NYSE Technologies’ SFTI network, data centers and a web services platform to be launched later this year.

NYX amended and restated its by-Laws to adopt a majority voting standard in uncontested elections of Directors. Under the existing by-Laws, directors are elected by a plurality of the votes. The amendment will add an explicit majority voting provision for uncontested director elections that would replace the plurality vote standard for such elections. Contested elections would remain subject to the plurality standard.

CBOE: weekly options will start trading on Thursdays and expire the following Friday to facilitate the rolling of contracts.

LSE: Turquoise’s new platform powered by MilleniumIT Technology is expected to go live on October 4th.

SGX’s FY2010 ETF turnover increased +33% Y/Y to SGD5.11 bn with non-domestic contributing over 90% and the number of listed ETFs doubled to 72.

EEX: the Power Working Committee presented proposals for the expansion of French Power Futures. EEX is planning to launch week contracts in France. The Council also approved the introduction of EUA Futures with contracts for the third EU ETS trading period.

JSE and FTSE launched the FTSE/JSE Equally Weighted Top 40 Index, the first equally weighted index within the FTSE/JSE Index Series.

Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange June total volume set a new record of 192,138 contracts.

DTCC acquired Avox, a UK based Deutsche Börse subsidiary that provides reference data on legal entities and counterparties to support risk management and regulatory compliance activities. DTCC will pay a "low double digit million British Pound figure" in cash.

Getco called for stronger rules for market makers in a note at the Financial Times. "As one of the largest market makers, we support stronger rules for liquidity provision. (…) To qualify as a market maker, companies should meet four criteria: provide useful liquidity; provide relevant prices; risk their own capital; and meet higher capital requirements based on their quoting obligations," Getco founders Stephen Schuler and Daniel Tierney said.

Cielo signed an agreement with Banco Bradesco that will allow Brazilian retailers to accept payments from American Express credit card using Cielo’s payment network.

JPMorgan China launched RMB international settlement services for global clients from its Shanghai branch. JPMorgan is the first foreign bank to offer clearing services in China.

Fortress agreed to acquire real estate debt servicer CWCapital from majority shareholder Otéra US Holding. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Fidelity: FMR raised $400 mn in new debt, with the proceeds of the 6.50% 30 year bond sale used for “general corporate purposes as well as investing in infrastructures, debt repayment and maintaining liquidity”. The company initially planned to raise $250 mn.

BlackRock launched the World Gold Fund (investing in gold-related companies) and “is refining the iShares COMEX Gold Trust”, lowering its sponsor fee from 40 bps to 25 bps.

AMG closed the acquisition of Pantheon from Russell Investments.

IVZ: PowerShares rebranded five ETFs to match changes in the index they track.

U.S. One plans to launch three more ETFs after the successful launch of its $35 mn One Fund, an actively managed global equity ETF.

E*TRADE opened its API for third-party and independent software developers .

Hellenic Exchanges: coverage was resumed with an “Overweight” rating at Euroxx Securities. Target price was set at €5.40.

Janus was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Citi. Target price was maintained at $13.

Dark pools’ US market share declined to 10.3% in May from a record 11.5% in April according to Rosenblatt. The larger participants were Credit Suisse’s Crossfinder with 2.1%, Knight Link with 1.6% and Goldman Sachs Sigma X with 1.6%.

SEC banned pay to play practices by investment advisors. The new rules prohibits investment advisers from providing advisory services for compensation for two years after making a contribution and “bundling” (soliciting contributions from others) for an elected official. The rules also apply to third party advisers.

The European Union unveiled a draft legislation that caps bankers’ cash bonuses at 30% of total payout.

Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com