Merrill Lynch legt Nano Fonds auf - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[MRASTA]

Ist ja mal einen Thread wert, nicht.

Merrill Lynch Creates `Nanotech Index` To Track Evolving Industry; Index Includes U.S. Shares, ADRs; American Stock Exchange Will Quote Measure Intraday

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 2004--Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) today introduced the "Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index," which, effective immediately, will be quoted intraday on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol NNZ.



The Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index, designed to help investors track the developing area, is an equally-weighted index of 25 nanotechnology companies headquartered in the United States or traded through American Depositary Receipts (ADR).

Each company included in the index has a significant percentage of its future profits tied to nanotechnology. In addition, each company`s stock must trade largely based upon its nanotechnology business. Companies that have significant nanotechnology efforts, but are traded based primarily upon other business lines, are not included in the index. Types of companies involved in the index include: semiconductors, biotechnology, instrumentation, sensors, diagnostics, drug delivery, drug development, genomics, and materials.

Nanotechnology Could Be Next Growth Innovation

"We believe nanotechnology could be the next growth innovation," Steven Milunovich, Merrill Lynch`s Global Technology Strategist, said in a research report outlining the new index.

"Like the Internet, nanotechnology risks being overhyped," he said.

Mr. Milunovich noted that there are two significant differences between the Internet and nanotechnology. "Unlike the Internet, significant intellectual property and patents are barriers to entry, and yet barriers to adoption are low."

Nanotechnology is the science of fabricating things smaller than 100 nanometers. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Merrill Lynch believes nanotechnology is the next logical step in miniaturization and that it is only a matter of time before the impact is felt in many industries. "Building at the nano-scale enables new interactions in materials, semiconductors, and biological agents," said Mr. Milunovich. "The new scale allows manipulation on the cellular level, which should enable new discoveries in pharmaceuticals, biodefense, and many healthcare industries."

Early-Stage Venture Capital Investor Sees Nanotech As "Next Great Wave"

"At Draper Fisher Jurvetson we believe nanotech is the next great wave in technology," said Managing Director Steve Jurvetson. "The challenge we face as early-stage venture capital investors is bridging the here and now with nanotech`s long-term future."

"Merrill Lynch`s new stock index allows investors and managements to track the progress of nanotechnology as it evolves. Nanotech is becoming the nexus of the sciences, so it`s appropriate that the technology strategy team at Merrill Lynch is taking the lead in researching this multidisciplinary field," he added.

Steven Milunovich ranked seventh in the March 2004 Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech`s Power Elite survey. For more information, please visit www.forbesnanotech.com.

Merrill Lynch is one of the world`s leading financial management and advisory companies, with offices in 35 countries and total client assets of approximately $1.5 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global underwriter of debt and equity securities and strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world`s largest managers of financial assets, with assets under management of $500 billion. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.

Editors Note: A copy of Merrill Lynch`s research report on the new Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index can be found at http://www.cwes01.com/9093/24013/ds/4351_747.pdf

[MRASTA]

Naja, hätte wohl Nanotech Index heißen müssen, aber egal.

cu

[MRASTA]

Wau, da fliegen bei einigen die Löcher aus dem Käse.

Unglaublich, was eine solche Meldung alles bewirken kann. Tseee auch wenn es nicht so bleibt, dass ist Irre.

cu

[vammi]

zeit auch für u.c.a.!!!

[Kostolanys Erbe]

hi mrasta,

sind ja tolle volumina bei einigen werten.....klasse.

tiny, nvec, tgal etc..



wie siehst du die weitere entwicklung bei mfic???

liebäugle ja mit sotk.

viele grüße
kosto

[BrauchGeld]

Hurraaaaa

Meine Westaim und Biosante sind dabei
Go Nano Sky is the Limit

Gruss
B.M.

[MRASTA]

@all

unglaublich oder ?

Hier nochmal alle die in dem Index drin sind :

The following companies will be included in the index: Amcol International (ACO), Applied Films (AFCO), Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI), Biosante Pharmaceuticals (BPA), Caliper Life Sciences (CALP), Cabot Microelectronics (CCMP), Emcore (EMKR), FEI (FEIC), Flamel Technologies (FLML), Headwaters (HDWR), JMAR Tech (JMAR), MTS Systems (MTSC), Nanometrics (NANO), Nanophase Technologies (NANX), Nanogen (NGEN), NVE Corp. (NVEC), Universal Display (PANL), Pharmacopeia (ACCL), SkyePharma (SKYE), Symyx Technologies (SMMX), Three-Five Systems (TFS), Harris & Harris (TINY), Ultratech (UTEK), Veeco Instruments (VECO) and Westaim (WEDX).

[MRASTA]

Ha, da hat Merill wohl jemanden auf dem linken Bein erwischt. Er hat ja nicht so ganz unrecht aber ob gerade der hier solche Töne spucken sollte, ich lache mich kaputt. Dumm gelaufen, wie ?

....Mr. Asensio`s firm has a financial stake in the definition because its main trading strategy is short selling.....




Concerns That Nanotech Label Is Overused
By BARNABY J. FEDER

Published: April 12, 2004



what exactly is nanotechnology? The definition is no longer academic as more investors become attracted to anything that carries a nanotech label.

On Thursday, Asensio & Company, an investment firm, faxed a letter to Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, charging that misuse of the nano label has become a favorite tactic for fraudulent stock promotion.

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Asensio asked Mr. Spitzer to investigate Merrill Lynch for including many companies that have little or nothing to do with nanotechnology in an index of 25 publicly traded nanotechnology companies that Merrill introduced on April 1.

"Investors are being harmed on a daily basis," said Manuel P. Asensio, chief executive of the investment firm, which is based in New York.

Juanita Scarlett, a spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, said that the office`s first step in response to such a request would be an informal inquiry.

Merrill Lynch, to which Mr. Asensio made phone calls and faxed letters before turning to Mr. Spitzer, is "in the process of performing a thorough and diligent inquiry," according to Susan McCabe, a company spokeswoman. "I can`t tell you how long that is going to take."

The term nanotechnology comes from the nanometer, which is one-billionth of a meter. Nanoscale measurements are used to describe molecules and their behavior. One nanometer is roughly the diameter of 10 hydrogen atoms and many of the smallest components of everyday products like the transistors in microchips are measured in nanometers.

The world of viruses, proteins and drug interactions can also can measured on a nanoscale. The most liberal view of nanotechnology encompasses all technology that operates below the threshold of 1,000 nanometers, or one micron.

The most common view - the one Merrill Lynch said it used - limits nanotechnology to products and production processes measured at 100 nanometers or smaller. Below 100 nanometers, the quantum forces that govern the behavior of individual atoms and molecules begin to have a discernible impact on metals and other materials, which can influence characteristics like strength, flexibility and electrical conductivity.

Strict constructionists reserve the term nanotechnology for innovations designed to exploit those novel behaviors and for devices able to control construction of nanoscale materials atom-by-atom. Some strict constructionists, like Mr. Asensio, would also exclude from the nanotech category products and processes developed before the rise of research in nanotechnology.

K. Eric Drexler, who coined the term in 1986, has complained that is now so broadly used that it is almost meaningless.

Mr. Asensio`s firm has a financial stake in the definition because its main trading strategy is short selling, in which an investor bets that a share`s price will drop.

Mr. Asensio said the firm had lost money because he thought the stocks in companies that should have declined, or at least risen more slowly, in the last two weeks had been supported by the companies` inclusion in Merrill`s technology index.

Merrill said that it was not endorsing any stock simply by including it in the index. Merrill`s analysts track just 3 of the 25 companies in the index, Ms. McCabe said. The index, which is listed under the ticker symbol NNZ on the American Stock Exchange, is not a tradable security.

[MRASTA]

erstaunlich, erstaunlich.

Aber Merrill hat die Zusammenstellung des Nanoindex tatsächlich geändert.



The move came after Asensio, who admits to being "short" one of the stocks in the index, NVE Corp. (nasdaq: NVEC - news - people), complained to Merrill and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that Merrill had included "false and misleading statements" in an analyst report that accompanied announcement of the index.

While the American Stock Exchange-listed index <.NNZ> is not tradeable, Asensio said inclusion of the stocks in the index had a "material effect" on prices and volume of 24 of index`s 25 stocks.

Several companies in the index, including Nanometrics (nasdaq: NANO - news - people), Three Five Systems (nyse: TFS - news - people) and Universal Display (nasdaq: PANL - news - people), were not primarily nanotech, Asensio said. Those three were dropped from the index, but it still lists NVE.

Other companies dropped were Applied Films, Caliper Life Sciences (nasdaq: CALP - news - people) and Emcore (nasdaq: EMKR - news - people). Companies added included CombiMatrix (nasdaq: CBMX - news - people), Novavax (nasdaq: NVAX - news - people) and Tegal (nasdaq: TGAL - news - people). Last week, citing a ticker error, Merrill dropped Cabot Microelectronics (nasdaq: CCMP - news - people) and added Cabot Corp. (nyse: CBT - news - people).

Merrill spokeswoman Susan McCabe said the brokerage got "a lot of investor feedback" after the index was launched, and that bank officials discussed it with Spitzer`s office in response to Asensio`s letter.

As a result, she said, "We changed the criteria to make it more transparent." Now to be included in the index, a company must "indicate in public documents that nanotech initiatives represent a significant component of their future business strategy," she said.

http://www.ml.com/redirect/redirect.asp?NAME=SPOTLIGHT_NANOT…