Market information

Friday, January 22, 2010

Wall Street investors reacted reluctantly on Obama’s plans to prohibit banks invest in speculative investment funds such as hedge funds and private equity funds. Also trading on own account, the so-called "proprietary trading", is restricted. Goldman Sachs reported an unexpectedly high fourth quarter result yesterday. This could not prevent sharp price decreases in stocks of companies in financial services industry and a 2% decline of the Dow Jones index.

The ABP announced its new investment strategy yesterday. In the upcoming years the largest pension fund in the Netherlands will further withdraw its positions in listed shares and expand in bonds and alternative investments. With its new strategy ABP expects a higher return without increasing the risk profile. ABP also announced that it is below the minimum required coverage of 105%. However, the fund decided to increase the pension benefits in 2010 with 0.45%. If the coverage is below 105% the fund may not actually increase the benefits, but the decision was based on the status of October 31st, when the coverage was just above the minimum buffer requirements.

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