The reasons behind the cooling off in activity on both sides of the Atlantic during Q1’18 are more important than the cooling off itself. In fact, the characteristics of these reasons are those which allow us to have confidence about the improvement in activity in the spring in both the US and Europe.
Repsol is making progress with the preparation of its new strategic plan which it will unveil on June 7. It aims to earmark 2.5-3 billion euros for acquisitions, compared with the 3.82 billion which it will obtain from the sale of its stake in Gas Natural to CVC.
One of the strategic points in the agreement of GroKo III is fiscal policy. After three years in «austerity mode» it now seems to be changing direction. CaixaBank’s economists analyse this in more detail.
Navantia will build five Avante 2200 corvettes for Saudi Arabia in the shipyards in Ferrol and Cadiz. It has been negotiating the contract since 2015 and it will provide nearly 6,000 direct and indirect jobs annually over the next five years. The operation is worth some 2 billion euros.
Spanish fund manager, Francisco García Paramés, has recently proved he is able to see value in stocks which the market has not looked at very closely, or has simply undervalued. There are two Portuguese stocks, Correios and EDP, in his Iberian Fund.
The IMF highlights that the Spanish population, like that of the other developed economies, will age over the coming years. The number of pensioners is increasing faster than the number of active workers. So the average salary is beginning to come in at the same level or below that of the average pension.
Analysts at BoAML expect Greece to expand by 2% in 2018, with risks becoming more balanced since growth performance has consistently surprised official forecasts to the downside so far. Furthermore, a stronger recovery requires decisive action on debt relief and dealing with bank NPLs.
The tech stocks that fuelled the last bull market have seen their share prices plummet as an onslaught of bad headlines takes its toll. According to Neil Dwane, Global Strategist at Allianz Global Investors, “more regulation and taxation are almost certainly on the horizon amid growing concerns about privacy, governance and profitability.”
IAG has bought 4.61% of Norwegian Air. And according to Bloomberg, the Spanish airline could be considering making a bid for the whole company. IAG’s interest in the low cost long-distance segment (where Norwegian operates) is clear, given that it created an airline last year with these characteristics called Level.
Javier Arce | The ECB does not get the banks to move their money, interbank market is still broken and eurozone lenders are accumulating the ECB’s liquidity injections (almost 700bn) at the central bank itself.