Santander will not have to take the Fed’s qualitative stress test. From this year, only those banks with over $250 billion on their balance sheet. Its US holding has just $142 billion in assets. Not having to take the qualitative part of the test will increase Santander’s flexibility for implementing its plans to reward shareholders (dividends and/or share buybacks).
If Theresa May could deliver on the proposals in her speech the UK would not see a ‘ hard Brexit ’. PM May suggested, to our mind, a ‘ cherry picking approac.Furthermore, PM May did not address the divorce bill the EU has said it will see.
Cellnex shares have under performed the sector by c.16% since mid -Oct 2016, mainly due to higher government bond yields and the market’s rotation out of yield stocks which, in the case of TowerCos, may have been exacerbated by their dependence on M&A.
As was expected, Teresa May announced that her plan is for the UK to exit the EU and the single market, also taking back control of its frontiers. Analysts believe that she will face problems with her EU partners because she seems to overlook the fact that the Brexit negotiations are not one-sided.
Concerns about auto sector in 2017 are rising as US president-elect Donald Trump threats against US companies relocating their production to Mexico. Local players have capitulated to the President-elect’s dictates- Ford cancelled plans to build a new Mexican plant- which suggests that the industry’s spine is a weak one after all as it lobbies its way into the new balance of power.
The January update of the IMF’s “World Economic Outlook”, published in October, confirms that Spain will recover this year all the GDP growth lost during the economic crisis, exceeding in 2017 for the first time the volume of growth in 2008.
Last week China’s trade data for December disappointed on the export side, with exports declining 6.1% y/y in USD terms. Imports were around expectations with a 3.1% rise.
A review on fixed income market cannot omit president-elect Trump’s first press conference of the year, although it contained little substance for investors trying to understand what the economic priorities of the new Administration will be.
J.L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | The World Bank is predicting an acceleration in global growth rate for this year of up to 2.7%, after the lowest level of growth in the wake of the Crisis estimated last year. In general, the latest global economic data is fuelling optimism.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | The Cypriot experience makes it abundantly clear that Greece’s only chance of returning to any kind of normality can be found at the end of its bailout programme.