New York Portfolio Clearing (NYPC) and it aims bring together cash positions and their natural derivatives hedge together into a single pot for improved risk management and improve capital efficiency.

"This will bring the cash and repo securities markets together with the listed derivatives market and potentially the OTC derivatives space," says Murray Pozmanter, managing director of fixed income product management at DTCC.

He adds that the new clearinghouse will provide a portfolio level view of participant positions across the cash and derivatives market. "It uses a one-pot approach with consolidated risk in one place. In the existing arrangements each clearing house margins its own portfolio," adds Pozmanter.

Following the launch of NYSE Liffe U.S., the exchange's U.S. futures business, the exchange was looking for a way to enter the clearing space.

"We had been strategizing on how to successfully compete in the interest arena in the U.S.," says Tom Callahan, CEO of NYSE Liffe U.S. "But there is a large barrier to entry in the interest rate futures market in the U.S."

So it had to be something different that NYPC would bring to the table, adds Callahan, who explains, "Not only do we avoid split margin pools, we go one better and many of the futures trades will be risk reducing trades at the FICC as the asset will be paired with its natural hedge. The ability to deliver capital back to the market becomes a powerful incentive for people to trade on our platform."

The new clearinghouse will leverage DTCC's Fixed Income Clearing Corporation's (FICC) technology for risk management, settlement, banking and reference data.

It will also utilize NYSE Euronext's TRS/CPS clearing technology, which is used for member position management for the NYSE Liffe market in London and ICE Clear in Europe.

"NYSE, through its merger with Liffe, has the technology for the futures space to employ for front office trade capture and back office trade management," explains Pozmanter. "The FICC in turn will enhance its existing risk management technology and infrastructure to do portfolio margining across both asset classes."

Callahan adds, "We have Liffe Connect in London and it's a terrific system and well distributed, which is an important part of being able to compete in the U.S. market, but that's not enough. We needed an innovative clearing solution and to solve the capital issue. Through our partnership with FICC we have that."

Executives expect NYPC to be up and running by the second quarter of 2010, pending regulatory approval.

Under the 50/50 joint venture NYSE Euronext will commit $50 million financial guarantee to reinforce the safety of the NYPC default fund. NYPC will start with clearing interest rate products traded on NYSE Liffe U.S. and will have the ability to add other exchanges.

Dennis Dutterer will serve as interim CEO of NYPC. He previously spent 20 years at The Clearing Corporation and has also served as interim president and CEO at the Chicago Board of Trade.

a person familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

An announcement from Treasury could come as soon as Thursday, the person said, adding that the roster of firms is likely to include Allianz SE's Pacific Investment Management Co, or Pimco, BlackRock Inc, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and private investor Angelo Gordon & Co.

A Treasury official could not immediately be reached for comment.

PPIP, which will use federal funds and private capital to buy banks' toxic assets, is a key part of the Obama administration's efforts to shore up the banking industry by cleansing banks' balance sheets and helping jump-start the lending and securitization necessary for a healthy economy.

Yet expectations about the overall toxic asset plan have been scaled back as banks have proven they can attract private capital without first cleansing balance sheets of a bulk of the troubled assets.

What is more, the source familiar with the government's plan said "the potency of the program has been diluted due to a lack of seller enthusiasm and caution on the part of potential buyers regarding regulation."

A recent rally in financial and bank stocks has allowed lenders to strengthen their balance sheets, thereby lessening the need to sell their toxic assets at firesale prices.

At the same time many investors are hesitant about partnering with the U.S. government for fear that it could later change the guidelines mid-stream.

traded.

June’s average daily volume for the month came in at 14,348,003 contracts, .89 percent less than the 14,476,380 contracts averaged each day for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date volume for June stood at 1,815,316,203 contracts compared to 1,736,179,540 contracts traded for the same period last year and representing a 4.56 percent increase. Year-to-date daily volume averaged 14,639,647 contracts, up 5.4 percent over 13,889,436 contracts averaged for the same year ago period.

Equity options volume experienced an increase of 5.61 percent with 295,713,821 contracts exchanged in June compared to 280,015,869 contracts for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date equity options volume for June stood at 1,697,028,182 contracts compared to the same point last year when 1,600,309,753 contracts were traded, representing a 6.04 percent increase. Equity options volume averaged 13,441,537 contracts each day in June, up .81 percent compared to 13,334,089 contracts each day for the same month last year.

The third highest trading volume day occurred on June 18 when 27,878,796 total options contracts were traded. Equity options also experienced the third highest trading volume day recorded on June 18 as 26,727,932 contracts were traded.

high-speed access interfaces, the Enhanced Transaction Solution and Enhanced Broadcast Solution, along with the new Xetra® Release 10.0.

Deutsche Boerse offers traders two new dedicated high-speed interfaces that can be seamlessly deployed via RTS’ trading solutions. The Enhanced Transaction Solution is an asynchronous message-based interface (TCP connection) that further pushes the boundaries of low latency trading.

The Enhanced Broadcast Solution (multicast connection) serves to transmit un-netted market data with significant order book depth as quickly as possible. The high-performance transmission mechanism reduces latency and provides faster access to market data.

Traders will rely on RTS to integrate Enhanced Broadcast Solution/Enhanced Transaction Solution into their existing trading infrastructure as these new connectivity options are not available via the exchange’s front-end. The new connectivity offering can lead to a reduction by at least 50 percent in transmission times for order data sent to Xetra and back to trading participants.

RTS’ proximity hosting solutions include Xetra and Eurex, allowing performance-driven traders to further profit from the combined offering, while keeping the cost under control. Said Christian Zahm, RTS Sales Director: “RTS is proud to be among the first trading solutions providers to offer this important global roll-out along with our proximity offering. With this enhanced connectivity offering, we are further strengthening our position as a leading technology provider for Xetra and for algorithmic trading solutions globally.”

“With the newly introduced high-speed interfaces, we will enable our members to tap into new performance dimensions,“ said Jens Hachmeister, Director, Head of Xetra Operations/Infrastructure Development at Deutsche Boerse AG. “Participants will considerably benefit from our technological expertise and the existing superior infrastructure for low latency trading.”

RTS and Deutsche Boerse are co-hosting a Webinar on July 7 to inform customers about upcoming Eurex and Xetra releases and functionality as well as detail the necessary steps to take to participate.  For more information, visit the RTS website at www.rtsgroup.net, or e-mail events@rtsgroup.net.

traded.

June’s average daily volume for the month came in at 14,348,003 contracts, .89 percent less than the 14,476,380 contracts averaged each day for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date volume for June stood at 1,815,316,203 contracts compared to 1,736,179,540 contracts traded for the same period last year and representing a 4.56 percent increase. Year-to-date daily volume averaged 14,639,647 contracts, up 5.4 percent over 13,889,436 contracts averaged for the same year ago period.

Equity options volume experienced an increase of 5.61 percent with 295,713,821 contracts exchanged in June compared to 280,015,869 contracts for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date equity options volume for June stood at 1,697,028,182 contracts compared to the same point last year when 1,600,309,753 contracts were traded, representing a 6.04 percent increase. Equity options volume averaged 13,441,537 contracts each day in June, up .81 percent compared to 13,334,089 contracts each day for the same month last year.

The third highest trading volume day occurred on June 18 when 27,878,796 total options contracts were traded. Equity options also experienced the third highest trading volume day recorded on June 18 as 26,727,932 contracts were traded.

May 2009. Total volume was 251 million contracts for June, of which 79 percent was traded electronically. Electronic volume averaged 9.0 million contracts per day, down 21 percent from the prior June, but up 6 percent sequentially.

"In the current financial environment, we are encouraged by record 2009 monthly volume across major products lines, from interest rates and foreign exchange to commodities and alternative investments," said CME Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "In addition, the 33 percent increase in over-the-counter volume cleared through CME ClearPort is a good indicator that the OTC market continues moving toward the safety and soundness our cleared solution offers."

"Improvements in credit and lending markets and significantly increased Treasury issuance have positively impacted CME Group's interest rate volumes and open interest in June," said CME Group Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "Reduced volatility and improvements in market depth have resulted in record volume of more than 6 million Eurodollar futures contracts on June 5."

CME Group interest rate volume averaged 5.1 million contracts per day, down 24 percent compared with the same period in 2008, but up 8 percent sequentially - representing the best monthly volume to date in 2009. Interest rate futures and options volume was up 14 percent second quarter over first quarter, with Treasury futures and options gaining 11 percent in the same timeframe. Average daily volume in inter-commodity spreads of Treasury futures and open interest for 3-Year Treasury Note futures reached record levels in June. Furthermore, a record volume of 6.0 million Eurodollar futures was traded June 5.

CME Group E-mini equity index volume averaged 2.8 million contracts per day, down 21 percent compared with June 2008. Equity standard volume averaged 154,000 contracts per day, down 32 percent compared with the same period last year. CME Group foreign exchange (FX) volume averaged 702,000 contracts per day, with notional value of approximately $89 billion, down 8 percent compared with the prior June, but up 29 percent sequentially - representing the best monthly volume to date in 2009. CME Group commodities and alternative investments volume averaged 912,000 contracts per day, down 18 percent from June 2008, but up 25 percent compared with May 2009 - representing the highest monthly volume to date so far in 2009.

Total NYMEX volume averaged 1.7 million contracts for June 2009, down 4 percent compared with the same period last year, but up 1 percent compared with May 2009. Monthly NYMEX energy futures and options volume averaged 975,000 contracts per day, down 13 percent from June 2008, but up 5 percent sequentially. COMEX metals volume averaged 188,000 contracts per day for June 2009, down 8 percent compared with the same period last year and down 2 percent sequentially. Average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 542,000 contracts for June 2009, up 33 percent compared with June 2008, as users continue to seek the safety and soundness of CME Group's regulated, centrally cleared markets. The remaining NYMEX volume of 38,000 trades per day consisted of other transactions, which include position transfers and exchanges.

Second-quarter volume averaged 10.4 million contracts per day, down 19 percent from second-quarter 2008, but up slightly from first-quarter 2009. Compared with first-quarter 2009, second-quarter interest rates volume increased 14 percent, FX volume increased 12 percent and commodities and alternative investments volume increased 19 percent. In addition, second-quarter average daily volume cleared through CME ClearPort was 537,000 contracts, up 29 percent compared with second-quarter 2008.

on US$1.5 billion of the same bonds in February, it is still 332 basis points over U.S. Treasury yield.

Currently, the amount of notes outstanding is worth US$2.75 billion. The company doubled the initial offer of US$500 million on the bond based on its high demand. Petrobras plans to use proceeds from these bonds to repay part of the $6.5 billion loan secured from various commercial banks for two years.

On the opening front, Petrobras has stepped closer to finalizing details of its planned tender for offshore drilling rigs and production platforms, which will increase its operating costs in the short term. However, the activity will encourage growth in the domestic oilfield-service sector. Moreover, efforts to standardize equipment for platforms, rigs and refineries under construction will help cut costs in the long term.

Petrobras has been running periodic auctions of natural gas for short-term delivery since the beginning of the year. It plans to schedule its fourth auction for the deliveries on July 8, which will be offered for delivery in August and September. The company started these auctions in order to sell excess gas in its pipeline system. This requires large investments and Petrobras will have to depend on government spending to finance majority of its investment plans for 2009.

However, Fitch Ratings has maintained the debt rating on Petrobras and its wholly owned subsidiary, PifCo (Petrobras International Finance Co.), based on the fact that investments made in exploration and production are likely to lead to significant increase in production and reserves in the upcoming future. Therefore, we continue to have a positive view on Petrobras.

economists had projected. Offsetting the bad news was a positive revision to May's number, with "just" 322,000 jobs being shed in the month.

Though the June unemployment rate was only fractionally higher than the month previous, it does imply that more than 1 out of every 11 Americans is unemployed. This is a conservative estimate, given that the unemployment rate has been previously criticized for under-counting the number of jobless workers.

This morning's data reinforces what I have said before: the economy is not out of the woods. Though economic conditions are clearly better than they were a few months ago, we remain in the midst of a recession.

and smartphones is showing signs of strength. During the past 2 weeks, several brokerage analysts have raised their profit projections on makers of these products.

Storage Device Revenues Higher Than Anticipated

Two storage makers recently raised their quarterly guidance.

Seagate Technology (STX - Snapshot Report) said last week that both unit demand and pricing were "tracking favorably". As a result, the company expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenues to be in a range of $2.2 to $2.3 billion. Previously, STX had guided for revenues of $1.9 to $2.2 billion.

Gross margins should also be better at approximately 15%.

Ten of the 17 covering analysts promptly raised their projections in response, narrowing the expected loss by 15 cents to 16 cents per share. Expectations for fiscal 2010 were revised as well, with profit of 52 cents now expected.

Strong sales of its ZeusIOPS solid-state drive led STEC, Inc. (STEC - Snapshot Report) to recently raise its second-quarter guidance. Solid-state drives are faster and use less energy than the hard drives currently used by most computers. Though still more costly, solid-state drives are starting to appear in more high-end laptops.

STEC now expects second-quarter non-GAAP profits to total between 32 and 36 cents per share, versus the previous forecast of 20 to 22 cents per share. Nearly all of the covering brokerage analysts raised their forecasts in response, pushing the consensus earnings estimate up to 32 cents per share. (Full-year projections were also revised, sending the consensus estimate 36 cents higher to $1.08 per share.)

Smartphones Selling Well

The bullish guidance for the hard drive makers came as smartphone makers Research in Motion (RIMM - Analyst Report) and Palm (PALM - Analyst Report) delivered comparatively good earnings reports.

Though RIMM's fiscal first-quarter results were not well received, the company did beat expectations with profits of 98 cents per share. More importantly, 29 analysts raised their fiscal 2010 projections. The revisions sent the consensus earnings estimate 18 cents higher to $4.11 per share. (One analyst revised his forecast within the past 7 days.)

PALM, one of the year's hottest stocks, saw its shares jump even higher following last week's report. The company generated a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of 40 cents per share, which was 32 cents better than the analysts had projected. PALM's results were aided by the initial shipments of the Pre, though the new phone will have a much greater impact during fiscal 2010.

Following the report, 4 of the 6 covering analysts revised their projections for the current year. The consensus estimate now calls for a loss of 28 cents, 88 cents narrower than the average forecast of a week ago.

Of course, any discussion about smartphones would not be complete without mentioning Apple (AAPL - Analyst Report). One million units of the iPhone 3GS were sold during the launch weekend, an impressive number.

Two analysts have since raised their fiscal 2009 forecasts. Though the revisions were not significant enough to move the consensus earnings estimate (36 analysts cover AAPL), they do suggest that the average projection of $5.50 per share could be too conservative.

offered $16 million to support the expansion of its assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho, to produce its one megawatt wind turbine.  Beacon Power, an energy storage company, has been offered $43 million to support the construction of its 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that will help ensure the reliable delivery of renewable energy to the electricity grid.

As stated by Secretary Chu, “These projects represent the innovative technologies that will help America reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and fight climate change,” while moving the nation closer to meeting President Obama’s goal of doubling renewable power.

These are the second and third conditional commitments for loan guarantees made by the Obama administration. In March, the Department made its first conditional loan guarantee for $535 million to Solyndra, Inc., which plans to construct a manufacturing plant to bring its cutting-edge solar technology to the commercial market. Secretary Chu has made it the priority of the Department to streamline the loan guarantee process by simplifying paperwork requirements and providing additional resources to process applications.  The loan guarantees announced today will be supported through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Nordic Windpower, USA

Nordic Windpower, USA was offered a conditional commitment for $16 million to support the tooling and commercial-scale up of its assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho.  Nordic’s proprietary one megawatt wind turbine uses two blades and a patented teeter-hub technology that dampens loads, resulting in a lightweight turbine at least 10% less costly to manufacture, install, operate and maintain than competing systems.

The Nordic wind turbine represents significantly improved technology which enables the turbine blades to flex at the hub, partially dissipating the eccentric loads, or turbulent winds, before they reach the drive train. This makes Nordic’s turbines more reliable and enables them to achieve structural integrity at a lower cost than more rigid designs.

The teeter hub design also makes it possible to deploy two blades, rather than three. The two blade design reduces installation cost, since the blades can be attached to the hub and nacelle on the ground and lifted into place with one single crane operation.

Beacon Power

Beacon Power, an energy storage company headquartered in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, was offered a conditional commitment for $43 million.  Beacon Power designs and develops advanced products and services to support more stable, reliable and efficient grid operation.  The loan guarantee will support the construction of Beacon’s 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that will help ensure the reliable delivery of renewable energy to the electricity grid.  Beacon’s innovative flywheel system, the core component of the 20 megawatt plant, is specifically optimized to perform frequency regulation on utility grids by absorbing and discharging energy to maintain the consistency and reliability of the electric grid.  

Beacon’s 20 megawatt power plant project will introduce a newly developed, not yet commercial technology to provide frequency regulation services to increase the nation’s use of renewable energy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

means each wind power base will generate more than double the power that's expected to be generated at T. Boone Pickens' wind farm in Texas. That's huge!

Certainly for those who invest in turbine manufacturers, this kind of continued support for wind energy in China could prove to be quite lucrative. But this opportunity is not limited to only the Middle Kingdom.

As it stands, the U.S. surpassed Germany as the country with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity in 2008. This, after more than 8,500 megawatts of new wind power increased the nation's cumulative total to more than 25,300 megawatts - representing a growth of about 50 percent.

Based on this growth rate, and assuming long-term policy support (which is now in place), this puts the U.S. on a trajectory to generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind energy by 2030.

This is a massive jump, based on the 1.25 percent that was generated by installed wind projects at the end of 2008 - and a massive opportunity for investors.

Of course, the real catalyst here is Washington.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has been very vocal about his support for wind energy development, saying that he believes wind energy is one of our most promising renewable energy sources.

Not surprisingly, the wind energy industry picked up $93 million from the stimulus to further develop wind energy in the U.S.

We also believe that much of the new investment in transmission and infrastructure is being made to facilitate the continued growth of wind in the U.S. After all, the DOE didn't announce that wind energy could produce 20 percent of our electricity by 2030 without taking into account infrastructure development.

The writing is on the wall, my friend. And unless you hate money, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be properly positioned in the wind energy market.

Wind Energy Investing: What the Stimulus Holds

When we talk about investing in wind energy, most focus on turbine manufacturers. It's a common and logical connection.

Today, GE (NYSE:GE), Vestas (CPH:VWS), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Suzlon (NSE:SUZLON) and Gamesa (MCE:GAM) are the main suppliers of wind turbines in the U.S.

means each wind power base will generate more than double the power that's expected to be generated at T. Boone Pickens' wind farm in Texas. That's huge!

Certainly for those who invest in turbine manufacturers, this kind of continued support for wind energy in China could prove to be quite lucrative. But this opportunity is not limited to only the Middle Kingdom.

As it stands, the U.S. surpassed Germany as the country with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity in 2008. This, after more than 8,500 megawatts of new wind power increased the nation's cumulative total to more than 25,300 megawatts - representing a growth of about 50 percent.

Based on this growth rate, and assuming long-term policy support (which is now in place), this puts the U.S. on a trajectory to generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind energy by 2030.

This is a massive jump, based on the 1.25 percent that was generated by installed wind projects at the end of 2008 - and a massive opportunity for investors.

Of course, the real catalyst here is Washington.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has been very vocal about his support for wind energy development, saying that he believes wind energy is one of our most promising renewable energy sources.

Not surprisingly, the wind energy industry picked up $93 million from the stimulus to further develop wind energy in the U.S.

We also believe that much of the new investment in transmission and infrastructure is being made to facilitate the continued growth of wind in the U.S. After all, the DOE didn't announce that wind energy could produce 20 percent of our electricity by 2030 without taking into account infrastructure development.

The writing is on the wall, my friend. And unless you hate money, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be properly positioned in the wind energy market.

bureaus and other consumer reporting agencies, and widely used to determine consumers' eligibility for credit, employment, insurance, and rental housing.

As required by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Trade Commission, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Office of Thrift Supervision are publishing these final rules and guidelines, with an effective date of July 1, 2010.

Under the rules, entities that furnish information about consumers to consumer reporting agencies generally must include a consumer's credit limit in the information provided. The federal agencies are also publishing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to identify possible additions to the information that furnishers must provide to consumer reporting agencies, such as the account opening date.

Also, under the rules, if a consumer believes his or her credit report includes inaccurate information, the consumer may submit a dispute directly to the entity that provided the information to the consumer reporting agency, and that entity must investigate the dispute. The rules do not change a consumer's ability to submit a dispute to a consumer reporting agency or a furnisher's duty to investigate a dispute referred by a reporting agency.

(To view the final rules and guidelines, go to: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20090702a.htm)

setting of 1/2 of 1/32nd, effective August 30. The change will be applied to all expiration months. The minimum trading increments for futures intermonth and intercommodity spreads as well as options will be unchanged. This contract is listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of CBOT.

"There is a renewed focus on the 30-Year contract due to the recent uptick in issuance in the long end of the Treasury curve," said Robin Ross, CME Group managing director of

interest rate products. "Customer feedback indicates that increasing the tick size will broaden participation from active traders who provide much needed liquidity to this important sector of the Treasury market."