Investing April 27, 2004

ICI: ETFs Increase Again in March

April 27, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Exchange-traded funds (ETF) grew again in March, adding $2.17 billion, bringing the asset total to $161.7 billion, according to data supplied by the Investment Company Institute (ICI).
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The increase for the month was smaller than February’s $3.7 billion intake (See  ICI: ETFs Gain $3.7B in February ) and increases were noted in the smaller two of the three ETF indices during the month.   The sole decreasing index was the Total Domestic Equity Index which decreased by $668 million in assets in March to close at $135.57 billion.   Both the Global/International Equity Index and the Bond Index increased for the month, adding $2.2 billion and $643 million to close at $20.05 billion and $6.08 billion, respectively.

Additionally, the value of ETF shares issued in February exceeded that of shares redeemed by $3.61 billion.   The total number of ETFs increased from 132 to 134 in March.

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Shares of 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 (see  Black Box: Exchange-Traded Funds ).

Compliance April 26, 2004

DoL's FLSA Rules Require Compliance by August 23

April 26, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com)—New Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rules enacted by the U.S. Department of Labor's (DoL) last week must be complied with by August 23, 2004, 120 days after they were made final, according to a Federal Register notice.
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Employers are beginning to implement the changes, attempting to apply the new salary and duties tests to their payrolls

The final regulations, the first revision to the FLSA since 1949, protect the overtime rights of blue-collar workers, union workers, nurses, veterans, firefighters, policemen and similar public safety workers, and respond to concerns raised with earlier proposed regulations during the comment period by clarifying that the overtime rights of these workers are not affected under the final rule (see  DoL Releases FLSA Changes ).

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The final rulings can be found here .

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