Macquarie listed four Structured Warrants on the world’s most actively traded index – the S&P 500® Index

OREANDA-NEWS. Last month, Macquarie listed four Structured Warrants on the world’s most actively traded index – the S&P 500® Index. The Index tracks the largest 500 companies listed on the New York and Nasdaq Stock Exchanges, capturing 80% of US equity market capitalisation.

Call and Put Warrants on SGX allows investors to leverage their view in either rising or falling markets, while gaining access to US market movements during local Singapore trading hours, as the S&P 500® actually trades through the full Asian trading day. Specifically, the E-mini futures (mini S&P 500® futures) on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) trades 23 hours a day, thereby providing price transparency and volatility during Singapore trading hours for S&P 500® warrants.

For the period of January to May this year, the S&P 500® futures moved an average 58 ticks per day during Singapore trading hours (excluding activity during regular US trading hours), more than the STI’s 35 ticks. S&P 500® Index Structured Warrants on SGX registered a total traded value of S$1.5 million in the July month-to-date, with 59.3% of the traded value in Put warrants and 40.7% in Call warrants.

Overall Structured Warrants turnover for the month July has remained strong, with an average turnover of S$43 million per day for the first seven trading days, peaking at S$84 million on 4 July 2016.

The S&P 500® Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both closed at record levels on Tuesday, as US stocks extended their rally for a third day, buoyed by optimism over better-than-expected jobs data released last Friday.

Major central banks are also expected to loosen monetary policy further, after the Bank of England and the European Central Bank said they will act to arrest any fallout from Brexit. A victory for the ruling party in Japan over the weekend has also cleared the way for increased fiscal stimulus in the world’s third-largest economy.

Investors expect only a 4% likelihood of a US interest rate increase in July, according to pricing in fed funds futures contracts. Odds of a Federal Reserve hike by December are back to 34%, after falling to around 8% following the UK’s June 23 referendum. Fed officials are expected to review the implications of Brexit at their next policy-setting meeting on July 26-27.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500® Index rose 0.7% to close at an all-time high of 2,152.14, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7% to end at a record of 18,347.67.