Neil Dwane (Allianz) | As Europe faces a world that may soon encompass Brexit and widening trade tension between the EU, the US and China – as well as growing political strains centred around Iran, Russia, Ukraine, NATO, Nordstream II and climate change, the next EU President faces an even more complex yet pressing array of challenges.
International credit rating agencies have had their fair share of controversies over the years. They have been at the centre of the major financial crises from the financial markets collapse of New York City in the mid-1970s, the Asian financial crisis of 1997 – 1998, the Enron scandal of 2001, to the global financial crisis of 2008. All of these cost investors globally billions. Although this has been evident through various crises – most notably the financial meltdown in 2008 – regulatory mechanisms are yet to address this problem. And, despite these known weaknesses, rating agencies are still being referenced in key financial market decisions.
DWS | June was dominated by surprisingly dovish central banks, which lifted some equity markets to new highs and pushed some bond yields to new lows. But the joy is not untroubled.
Carsten Menke (Julius Baer) | While the extension of oil production cuts was confirmed at the last OPEC meeting, discord emerged between Saudi Arabia and Russia about whether even deeper production cuts would be needed. Oil prices came under pressure, reflecting renewed concerns about global growth. We see prices trading slightly below fundamentally justified levels.
European banks need, on average, to increase their minimum capital by 24.4% with the new requirements set by the Basel III standard, which currently represents a deficit of 135,100 million euros, the European Banking Authority (EBA) confirmed.
Ioannis Glinavos via Macropolis | Greece is heading for a general election on July 7. A great part of the political narrative around this election is a confrontation between a supposedly fantastical leftist alternative and a mature, European direction for Greece. The former is represented by Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA, while the latter is allegedly promised by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and New Democracy.
Morgan Stanley | We reduced our estimates of EBITDA FY19 for Acerinox by 7%, by reducing our estimates between 2Q-4T as a result of the loss in the revaluation of inventories.
BME | The market value of the treasury shares plus the amortizations made by these companies during the year reached 6,621 million euros in December, 9.9% more than in 2017.
David F. Lafferty (Natixis) | Christine Lagarde’s appointment was somewhat of surprise where few economists predicted her to take the helm of the ECB. This gives some indication of how complex the negotiations were for the new EC governing positions.
J.L.M. Campuzano (AEB) | The European Central Bank released the data of the M3 and its counterparts in the euro area until May. The intermediate liquidity objective maintains its annual evolution stable by 4.8%, supported by a strong increase of 7.2% in cash and demand deposits. The rest of its components, such as deposits and market instruments, maintain marginal growth.