BBVA Research (Boyd Nash-Stacey/Nathaniel Karp) | The FOMC is poised to undergo a nontrivial change in leadership and composition with four new regional Fed members rotating into voting roles and with a potential change in leadership.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | Alexis Tsipras’s recent visit to the USA was something of a curate’s egg, ranging between high diplomacy and acute embarrassment. It would be wrong, though, to dismiss its implications.
The global use of energy would have grown 12% in 2016 without the efficiency improvements achieved since 2000, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Against a backdrop of unstoppable digitalisation, one of the objectives for the banks at the moment is to find a balance between their physical branches and this new digital approximation which clients want.
Spanish energy Cepsa has acquired the rights to develop its first wind farm in Jerez (Cádiz) for an investment of 35 million euros. This the company’s first foray into the wind energy sector and diversifies its energy business. Cepsa is Spain’s fourth largest industrial group in terms of turnover.
2017 very satisfactory earnings growth (c. 17%) for European equities is still largely due to Banks recovering from a disastrous 2016 and miners doing surprisingly well, again. “This hides a dramatically improving picture for Non-Financials at large” , say experts at Carax/Alphavalue.
The UK real yields are likely to rise and close part of the gap with neutral rates. The analysts of AXA IM retain open long-volatility positions via options on Treasury notes. As they explain “sovereign bonds posted mixed performances over the month Since mid-September, European bonds have earned 0.6% and 0.5% respectively in UK and Germany, while US and Japanese bonds lost respectively 0.2% and 0.4%.”
Ratings agency Fitch has warned that a property bubble is evident in the centres of Spain’s large cities. But it makes it clear that it does not anticipate any generalised bubble in housing prices in the country in the short-term. This is due to the high level of stock which still has to be absorbed and the restrictions on buying a home.
The recovery seen in the banks’ activity at an international level at the beginning of this year has been temporary. In line with data from the BIS, the banks’ international activity fell $91 in the second quarter from the first. With the exception of loans to non-banking institutions.
BME announced yesterday that it will adapt its fixed income market so that intermediaries can transfer all their operations to the regulated market and comply with the new transparency and reporting requirements of MiFID II.