Yahoo Finance launches a new center for currency investors
Yahoo Finance launched Currencies Center this week. The center provides additional currency information in order to meet growing demand as visits to the site’s currency resources doubled over the past year, according to a press release.
New features include rates tables with flat rates and cross rates of most-traded currencies and currency pairs, a global economic calendar that lists major economic events that affect currencies and allows filtering by country.
There is also a new aggregated display of currency-related investments, including commodities and exchange traded funds, as well as news and commentary on currency-related news from major providers.
The currency calculator at the site now has a more user-friendly format to simplify conversions as well as new search capabilities that allow users to search for currencies in six different ways, including by country, capitol or symbol.
Users can access Currencies Center by visiting the
Yahoo Finance home page and clicking on “Currency Investing” or by going directly to the
Currencies Investing and
Currency Converter pages.
SEC approves reporting by public companies, mutual funds in interactive format
The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed in a vote Thursday to require public companies and mutual funds to use
interactive data for reporting of financial information.
With interactive data, all of the facts in a financial statement are labeled with unique computer-readable tags using a specialized computer language called XBRL.
These tags make financial information more searchable on the Internet and more readable by spreadsheets and other software.
"Interactive data will help provide investors with the information they need, rather than just a warehouse of forms on which they can try to find it," departing SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a statement.
"Interactive data will enable new analysis tools to put key information at every investor's fingertips within seconds, exactly as the investor wishes to see it."
Under a phased-in approach, the largest public companies will begin filing in interactive format starting with their first quarterly report for fiscal periods ending on or after June 15.
Remaining companies for the most part will be required to file with interactive data on a phased-in schedule over the next two years.
Mutual fund companies will follow suit in 2011 and will file information such as objectives and strategies, risks, performance and costs.
The SEC unveiled the Interactive Data Electronic Applications system in August for accepting interactive data filings.
IDEA is initially supplementing and eventually replacing the agency's EDGAR database, which first came online in 1984.
For more information, visit the SEC’s
IDEA site.
Morningstar acquires international real-time data provider
Morningstar Inc. announced this week that it has acquired Tenfore Systems Ltd., a global provider of real-time market data and financial-data workstations that is headquartered in London.
Tenfore collects data on global equities, commodities, derivatives, indexes and foreign currencies from more than 160 sources and consolidates the data for real-time distribution to clients.
"Tenfore is an important strategic acquisition for Morningstar," said Joe Mansueto, chief executive of Chicago-based Morningstar.
"It provides an entry into a new area for us: offering global real-time stock quotes to our clients.”
With more than 500 clients worldwide, including brokerage firms, banks, trading firms, buy-side institutions, financial information and technology providers, corporations and retail investors, Tenfore has a wide reach.
The company will be re-branded under the Morningstar name.
Approximately 50 people are employed by Tenfore and are based in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York.
The company was owned by a private investment group, and terms of the sale were approximately U.S. $21 million in cash.
For more information, visit
Morningstar and
Tenfore online.
