Investing March 31, 2003

ETFs Continue Losing Assets in February

March 31, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Assets in exchange-traded funds (ETF) dipped to $92.8 billion in February - the third drop in a row - from $95.6 billion in January .
Reported by

ETFs saw total domestic equity index assets drop to $83.8 billion in February from $86.9 billion in January. Broad-based domestic ETFs saw a dropoff to $73.4 billion from $76.5 billion in January, while sector/industry domestic ETFs reversed the decreases seen elsewhere, increasing their asset base to $10.5 billion, according to data supplied by the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Other increases were eked out in global/international ETFs, growing to $5.2 billion in February from January’s $5.1 billion and bond ETFs increasing to $3.8 billion from $3.7 billion.   Comparatively, January’s overall asset report was down from December’s $102.1 billion (See ETFs Start 2003 Headed South).

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Further, the value of ETF shares redeemed in January exceeded that of shares issued by $1.9 billion. The total number of number of ETFs added a global/international equity index to their rolls, bringing the overall February total up one to 114.

Shares of an exchange traded fund trade intraday on stock exchanges at market determined prices. Investors may buy or sell ETF shares through a broker just as they would the shares of any publicly traded company.

Compliance March 28, 2003

8-K Blackout Disclosure Plan Put on Hold

March 28, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said companies should continue disclosing retirement plan blackout period information in their quarterly reports for the time being.
Reported by

The notice puts on hold plans approved in January requiring companies to provide a notice to the public about said blackout periods.   Under the approved plan, retirement plan blackout information was intended to be disclosed by companies in a new section in Form 8-Ks, also referred to as a “current report,” according to a Dow Jones report.  

However, a statement issued by the Commission put the brakes on those plans because, “necessary programming to add (the pension-fund item to Form 8-K) is not yet complete.”   Therefore, companies should continue to file the disclosure in quarterly reports until the SEC announces the necessary updates to Form 8-K are ready, the agency said. No timetable was provided.

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8-K Review

>The Form 8-K is used to report the occurrence of any material events or corporate changes which are of importance to investors or security holders and previously have not been reported by the company. It is intended to provide more current information on certain specified events than would quarterly and annual reports.

The most recent rule was part of a series of administrative moves by the SEC, putting into effect a law Congress enacted last summer to combat corporate fraud and restore shaken public confidence in the integrity of corporate America.   These changes were spurred after the public downfall of Enron Corp, in which employees were blocked from selling company stock during a blackout period.

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