The Markets May 10, 2010

ETF Assets Increase $23B in April

Exchange-traded-fund (ETF) assets increased by $23.3 billion for the month of April, totaling $830 billion, according to the latest ETF Snapshot from State Street.
Reported by

Small-cap ETFs had the most influx during the month, climbing $2.7 billion, followed by mid-cap at $1.7 billion. Materials and REITs each had $1.2 billion in gains, while health care fell $644 million.   
The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace as of the end of April were BlackRock, State Street, and The Vanguard Group. Together, they accounted for about 84% of the U.S. listed ETF market, according to the report.   

Top three U.S. ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500, iShares Russell 2000, and PowerShares QQQ. The top three ETFs in terms of assets were the SPDR S&P 500, SPDR Gold Shares, and iShares MSCI EAFE.  

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Reporting performance, the report showed small- and mid-cap ETFs rose 5.8% and 3.9% in April, respectively. Value outperformed growth in all size segments in April as well as year-to-date.    

Seven of the 10 sectors rose year-to-date and three—Telecommunications, Utilities, and Health Care—are down year to date.

Data & Research May 10, 2010

Companies Allow Higher 401(k) Contributions

Sixty-eight percent of employers reported that their company allows 401(k) participants to contribute 25% or more of their earnings, according to a survey by BLR.
Reported by

The latest data represents a significant increase over the 58% of organizations that allowed such contribution levels in late 2006, the survey found.

While 22% of responding employers do not match employee 401(k) contributions, 32% match between 2% and 4% of salary, and 33% match up to 6%. Of those organizations that match 401(k) contributions, most (59%) match at least $0.50 cents on each dollar contributed.

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The November 2009 survey received more than 1,000 responses, of which 75% originated from companies with fewer than 500 employees. The responses were evenly divided geographically within the United States.

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