Nasdaq OMX Expands Information Offering with Macroeconomic Data

Today, Nasdaq OMX announced an exclusive relationship with MasterCard to distribute its detailed reports on consumer spending activity to the buy-side community.

Nasdaq OMX has inked an exclusive agreement with MasterCard Advisors, a division of MasterCard, to distribute detailed data on consumer spending trends to the professional investment community.

Beginning this month, Nasdaq OMX will make MasterCard SpendingPlus and Sector Insights reports available through its global data products subscription service, the company announced today.

The move propels Nasdaq OMX’s expansion into the delivery of macroeconomic data and detailed information on consumer spending activity. The deal between Nasdaq Global Data Products and MasterCard Advisors specifically relates to the syndication and distribution of macro-economic trends and insights.

“This is really macroeconomic data that we don’t have today,” said Brian Hyndman, SVP, Global Information Services at Nasdaq OMX. MasterCard has a way to track every credit card, cash and check transaction to see how the retail market is spending its money, he said.

In particular, Nasdaq OMX said the partnership would expand its current offerings to the buy side to make more informed investment and trading decisions.

As a global exchange operator Nasdaq OMX currently distributes its own real-time and historical data on equities, options and futures and on the index side. “The idea is how can we get more information to distribute out to the investment community,” said Hyndman.

MasterCard approached Nasdaq OMX a few months ago, about distributing this proprietary data. “They have these great packages which aggregate total retail spend and they correlate very well to numbers that are released by the government,” said Hyndman.

While MasterCard's share is 26% of the credit card universe, it captures 100 percent of the retail transaction market. MasterCard Advisors aggregates this data together and comes out with a variety of reports that they package together for sale to the buy side trading community. It draws on anonymous, aggregated credit card transaction data, third-party data and estimates for all other payment types, and then applies sophisticated, proven modeling techniques to derive insights into consumer spending trends.

“We’re going to take their data and distribute it out to the investment community including hedge funds, venture capital firms and private equity firms so that they can make trading decisions,” said Hyndman. Buy-side firms obtain this information today in a piecemeal manner.

“Firms are trading on this information today, in some shape or form,” said Hyndman referring to VCs, private-equity firms and hedge funds, adding, “And, they are gathering this information to understand what the retail spend is today.” The reports will complement that data and can be used to validate what they receive today.

“SpendingPulse has historically been one of the most sought-after reports in the investment community,” commented Sarah Quinlan, SVP, Market Insights for MasterCard Advisors in a statement. “Today, a new group of investment professionals can gain insights like how warmer weather last month is giving retailers greater optimism of improved sales and a continued comeback, especially in discretionary spending.”

Data for SpendingPulse is sourced from 38 million merchants worldwide. SpendingPulse reports are available for the U.S., UK, Canada, Brazil and Hong Kong, and are delivered the first week of each month.

Mastercard Sector Insights offers a weekly view of retail sales trends within key industry sectors to better understand consumer behaviors and predict future activity. It collects data from all industry sectors including apparel, e-commerce, luxury jewelry, restaurant, automotive, as well as high–end and casual dining. Month-over-month and week-over-week comparisons are provided.

While subscribers today receive the MasterCard Spending Pulse and Sector Insights reports in a PDF format, Nasdaq OMX is expected to make changes. “We know they will want it in an electronic format so they can massage the data,” said Hyndman. “We’re going to make enhancements to the distributions,” added Oliver Albers, head of sales, global data products.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio