Repsol is the Spanish firm with the biggest exposure to Venezuela, which S&P has said is in selective default for failing to make $200 million in overdue coupon payments on its 2019 and 2024 global issues.
He Fan, Ye Qianlin and Li Chaohui via Caixin | The U.S. president’s three-day state visit to China ended up with dazzling trade deals worth over $250 billion. It seemed the most pressing issue on the agenda would have a respite.
The four central bankers, Draghi, Yellen, Carney and Kuroda have commited to continuing to”give open guidance” on future decisions, as they slowly withdraw monetary stimuli.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | Greek unit labour costs since euro adoption had rosen by 35 % in 2008, compared to less than 20% in the euro area. Greece’s minimum wage was higher than countries that would be considered peers, 50 % above Portugal’s and 17 % higher than Spain’s. In 2010, when the first programme was designed, the labour market was too rigid to deliver what the programme envisaged.
US companies’ profits have exceeded forecasts by 4.6%, the European ones by 2% and Japanese firms by 6.7%. This has fuelled a strong rally in the stock markets in just a few weeks. But is there room for the markets to rise further?
The spectacular results of the four major US technology firms drove the Nasdaq index to a new record high as it closed the week at 6.701, a rise of 35% since the highs of the technology bubble at the start of the century which was a psychological level many thought would never be recovered.
Abengoa posted net profit of 4,733 million euros in the nine months to September 2017, compared with losses of 5.413 billion a year earlier, due to the impact of the company’s financial restructuring on its balance sheet.
While the EU statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday GDP in the eurozone rose 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the three months to September and 2.5% year-on-year, the EC revised yesterday its growth forecast for the region to 2.2%, markedly higher for this and next year. Therefore, this Commission’s expectation in 2017 is well justified, based on published data from Eurostat.
This Monday Colonial has launched a bid for all the shares in the socimi Axiare which it does not already own at a price of 18,50 euros/share. This means valuing the whole of the company at 1.462 billion euros. The transaction will allow Colonial to become a leader in the offices sector in Europe.
Italy will choose their next government in 2018. Italy is subject to the same four issues present in many Eurozone member states, but with greater intensity: low growth (with productivity gains gone AWOL before the Global Financial Crisis), high public debt, a weak banking sector and political fragility. Improvements on all four fronts have characterized 2017.