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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.

Kronos® Incorporated announced the July release of the Kronos Retail Labor Index™, a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector, and provide a distinct and early indicator of the overall state of the economy. The July report includes data for June 2010.

Institutional investment managers have moderated their expectations for global growth, according to a quarterly survey conducted by Northern Trust Global Advisors (NTGA), and more than two-thirds of those surveyed expect that sovereign debt concerns regarding Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain will weigh on global markets for the next six months or longer.

OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for May 2010 continue to point to an expansion but with stronger signals of a slowing pace of growth than in last month’s assessment. The CLI for the OECD area increased by 0.1 point in May 2010, the 10th consecutive monthly deceleration.

According to the results of nationwide survey showed that entrepreneur confidence index (ECI) gained 133.0 in the second quarter, fell 2.5 points over previous quarter.

Please be advised that Gallup and Healthways, Inc. released the Gallup-Healthways Monthly U.S. Well-Being Report for June 2010.

Business Climate Survey results of NBS in whole country showed that the national business climate index (BCI) was 135.9 in the second quarter of 2010, booming up by 3.0 points quarter-on-quarter.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Japan decreased 0.6 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) decreased 0.4 percent in May.

Real GDP in the OECD area grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009. Stockbuilding was the main contributor to OECD GDP growth for the third consecutive quarter.

A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and service sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.