Menu

Foreclosure Deals, an online leader in the foreclosed homes for sale listings and information industry, announced that 31% of all residential properties sold in the first quarter of 2010 were foreclosure properties. Experts at the company believe the statistic shows that people are continuing to turn to the foreclosure market as a plentiful source of low cost homes.

A combination of U.S. stock market declines and lower interest rates in June resulted in the lowest-funded status for the typical U.S. corporate pension plan since February 2009, according to monthly statistics published by BNY Mellon Asset Management.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.K. increased 0.3 percent, and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.1 percent in May.

Technology solution provider companies have weathered the latest economic recession by strengthening ties to existing customers, stepping up their use of social media as a marketing tool and strategically investing in new products and services, a new survey by CompTIA and ChannelForce reveals.

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence™, which had decreased in the first quarter of 2010, was unchanged in the second quarter. The Measure remains at 62 (a reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses).

The unemployment rate for the OECD area fell slightly to 8.6% in May 2010 from 8.7% in April. The general pattern of broad stability continues across most OECD countries. But the June 2010 rates for Canada, at 7.9%, and the United States, at 9.5%, both fell by 0.2 percentage point from May.

International migration has fallen during the economic crisis, but as the recovery moves into gear migrants will once again be needed to fill labour and skill shortages, according to a new OECD report.

As part of its work creating a safer and sounder financial system, preventing a future crisis and restoring consumer confidence, the European Commission has proposed changes to existing European rules to further improve protection for bank account holders and retail investors. Furthermore, the Commission has launched a public consultation on options to improve protection for insurance policy holders, including the possibility of setting up Insurance Guarantee Schemes in all Member States. For bank account holders, the measures adopted today mean that in case their bank failed, they would receive their money back faster (within 7 days), increased coverage (up to € 100 000) and better information on how and when they are protected. For investors who use investment services, the Commission proposes faster compensation if an investment firm fails to return the investor's assets due to fraud, administrative malpractice or operational errors, while the level of compensation is to go up from € 20 000 to € 50 000. Investors will also receive better information on when the compensation scheme would apply and get better protection against fraudulent misappropriations where their assets are held by a third party - such as in the recent Madoff affair.

CEO confidence is up even amidst talk of a double dip recession, according to the Vistage CEO Confidence Index 2nd quarter results. While CEOs of small to medium sized businesses have lowered their expectations for the pace of growth in the overall economy, they remain confident that, over the next twelve months, they will increase revenues and profits, as well as hire new employees. In the fourth quarter of 2008, CEO confidence indexed at 48.7 – an all-time low since the survey began in 2003. According to University of Michigan’s Dr. Richard Curtin, who has directed the survey since its inception, CEO confidence rose to 94.4 this quarter, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly increase.

Alternative assets under management (AuM) on behalf of pension funds by the world’s largest alternative investment managers remained unchanged in 2009 compared to the year before at US$817 billion, according to research produced by global professional services company Towers Watson in conjunction with the Financial Times. The research also shows that around half of all assets managed by these alternative investment managers are managed on behalf of pension funds. The Global Alternatives Survey covers five alternatives asset classes: real estate; private equity fund of funds (PEFoF); fund of hedge funds (FoHF); infrastructure and commodities and includes rankings of the top managers in each area.