As China gets fatter, a market also expands
BEIJING | Via Caixin | As China gets richer, many of its people are becoming overweight, and businesses aimed at helping people improve poor lifestyles will prosper.
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After landmark return in April, Greece prepares to tap bond markets again
ATHENS | By MacroPolis | After tapping markets in April for the first time in four years, Greece is considering another bond transaction, which could take place as early as next week, according to reports. The troika delegation is scheduled to return to Athens on July 9 and the country’s goal is for the operation to take place as early as possible to avoid any negative repercussions during the inspection by Greece’s lenders affecting investor interest or the yield.
Rajoy’s armour-plating against strong, divided left?
MADRID | Op-ed by Jaime Santisteban | Spanish government is announcing “second generation reforms” in technology and innovation, optimizing of European Structural Funds for youth employment and public-private partnerships. Even a change in mayors’ election procedure. On which grounds? These measures come up after European elections showed a very fragmented political scene and a serious punishment to bipartisanship.
ECB to issue minutes, move to six-week schedule
ZURICH | By The Corner | As expected, the ECB did not unveil any new policy measures on Thursday. Although the Bank maintains an easing bias, it signalled that it wants to wait and see how the monetary stimulus delivered last month unfolds. UBS’ base case scenario remains that ECB rates will stay on hold for the foreseeable future and that QE will not be deployed. The key news from ECB’s meeting was more of a technical nature.
Greece prepares to tap bond markets again
ATHENS | By Macropolis | After tapping markets in April for the first time in four years, Greece is considering another bond transaction, which could take place as early as next week, according to reports. The first bond issue on April 10 was a 3-billion-euro, 5-year note in a syndicated sale that was heavily oversubscribed. The yield was 4.95 percent.
Strong US jobs report stirs debate on Fed’s earlier move
MADRID | The Corner |“Yabadabadu!,” US economist Justin Wolfers exclaimed on his Twitter account. The strong jobs report (unemployment rate declined to near a six-year low of 6.1% and non-farm payrolls rose by 288,000 last month)was released on Thursday gave a shot of optimism over the strength of the job market’s recovery. The Dow broke 17,000 for the first time. Will all this have any influence on the Fed’s tapering plans?
No matter what, non-residents bet on French debt
MADRID | The Corner | While markets are expressing their concerns about the French economy, institutional investors seem quite comfortable about the Hexagone’s situation: the debt share of non-residents is 57.3 %, according to Eurostat. Finland and Latvia are the top choices with 81.6 % and 80.0 % of their debt owned by non-residents. Check the graph above.
Global growth is back on track
LONDON | By The Corner | The final estimate of the Barclays global manufacturing confidence reveals another improvement in June, as they had initially expected, from -0.10 to 0.05, the highest level since December last year. As anticipated in the preliminary readings, the rise was driven by improvements in manufacturing activity in the US, Japan and China, where the trend in the forward-looking new orders component suggested it should last well into the second half of the year. At the same time, activity in the euro area showed further signs of momentum loss, with expansion weakening in all the big five except for Spain.
Yellen: Financial stability risks don’t justify rate hikes at this moment
MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | Monetary policy has “major limitations” and regulation should play the lead role in combating excessive financial risk-taking,” said Fed’s chairwoman Janet Yellen on Wednesday at an event sponsored by the IMF.
EPS: where will multiples get?
MADRID | The Corner | Markets are wondering where will expansion of multiples will get given this low macro volatility environment and expansionary monetary policies at the global level.