Top Stories
CAF consolidates its position in France with the rehabilitation of 43 trains for Paris

In Spain, Markets, SPANISH SMALL & MID CAPS 19th October 2020

CAF Favourite To Take Over Alstom’s Assets

Spain’s CAF is amongst the investors interested in buying the only factory Alstom has put up for sale in France to meet the conditions imposed by the European Commission on the purchase of the Canadian firm Bombardier. In fact, CAF is the favourite to take over Alstom’s assets. The French unions have positioned themselves in favour of CAF due to the size of the company and their commitment to retaining the entire workforce. That said, CAF will have to compete with Skoda for the factory. 

Read More
merchbank

In Europe 19th October 2020

EU27 And The UK: Product Dependencies And The Implications Of Brexit

In 2019, 50% of the imports and 47% of the exports were traded with the EU27, which makes the EU27 market the UK’s largest trading partner. In 2006, both, the shares of UK exports and imports to the EU27, were at the maximum level; since then both shares are on a general downward trend, the exports more than the imports. Since the referendum in 2016, the exposure to the EU27 market did not significantly change from the perspective of the UK. Hence, especially as a supplier, the EU27 matter for the UK. For the EU27, the UK is much less important as a trading partner: in 2019, only 4% of total exports go to the UK and 6% of the total imports are from the UK, respectively. While the trade shares decrease between 2001 and 2007, they remain relatively stable thereafter. Since the referendum in 2016, we have seen a slight decrease in the trade shares with the UK.

Read More

In the World, World economy 18th October 2020

The Scale Of US Election Spending Explained In Five Graphs

William Horncastle via The Conversation | The amount of money spent on US elections eclipses the annual total economic output of some small countries. The total spending by candidates, political parties and independent campaign groups in the 2016 race was US$6.5 billion – comparable to the GDP that year of Monaco, Kosovo or Liechtenstein. The 2020 election cycle is forecast to smash previous spending records, with the Center for Responsive Politics estimating it will cost US$11 billion. That would be comparable to the 2019 GDP of Equatorial Guinea or Chad.

Read More

interviews

Alberto Toribio, ambassador of Crypto Plaza

“Highly Volatile Assets, Such As Crypto-Currencies, Are Necessary In Many Investment Strategies”

María Fernanda Martínez Sierra | “Investment portfolios usually contain positions of different risks, and today covering that part of high risk assets not correlated with the rest is a problem. That is why many investors access this market… many savers only contract bank deposits, because of their low risk, and then buy lottery. The strategies in investment portfolios are not so far removed from that analogy,” says Alberto Toribio’s, whose company was the first Spanish to be set up with crypto-currencies.

Read More