LONDON | Skandia Investment Group believes equities will go higher in 2012 despite their already record performance in the first quarter. Equities would be set to rally again once profit taking comes to an end, SIG told investors Friday in a note. Analysts pointed out that global equities had their strongest quarter in over 10 years on the back of strong economic data and hopes that the European debt crisis was past…
LONDON | Standard Life Investments, the global investment manager, said on Thursday that the debt deleveraging cycle was showing signs of improvement, especially in the US, while admitting that the process remains a long and complex one after such a major financial crisis. In the latest edition of Global Outlook, Standard Life Investments highlighted that one of the key features differentiating this business cycle from most of its predecessors was…
In February 2012 compared with January 2012, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.2% in the European Union. In January production remained stable in both zones, said Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Year on year, though, industrial production dropped by 1.8% in both the euro area and the EU27. In February 2012 compared with January 2012, production of energy grew by 7.7% in the…
LONDON/MADRID | Sheffield City Council in England announced that Ferrovial Services’ subsidiary Amey was the preferred bidder for a contract to maintain the city’s infrastructure in a project worth £2 billion or €2.425 billion in revenues. The contract includes a 5-year programme of upgrade works, followed by maintenance for 25 years. The Ferrovial Services subsidiary will take responsibility for 1,900 km of road, 68,000 street lights, 500 traffic signals, 600 bridges and other structures, 2,400 retaining walls…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | A misdiagnosis can be fatal for the patient. Especially if the doctor is German, or Spanish but disciple of the Bundesbank school. Inflation is bad and so the public deficit is, that is the slogan. Let the people discuss whether this or that department should be reduced or not, and what about pensions or public investment?, VAT yes or no?, while the economy gets worse and…
MADRID | According to Alberto Vigil, analyst at Barclays in Madrid, the peripheral euro risk and particularly Spain’s has been exaggerated by the markets, which would be discounting an economic situation perceived as poor and with a very limited range of choices. Yet, Vigil maintained an optimistic opinion and said investors will reconsider their position when reviewing the strengths of the country. “Spain could have done its reforms much better, but…
LONDON | The cost of too many layoffs made during a steep crisis could leave a wide range of businesses unable to board the pick up economic train. So either it is optimism in the medium term or an honest belief in the coalition government’s mantra ‘we are all in this‘, but research from insurance firm More Than revealed Wednesday how small business owners are going to extraordinary lengths to…
Fernando del Pino Calvo-Sotelo, in Madrid | Through the years, central, regional and local politicians have created, out of the blue, hundreds of thousands of laws, rules and regulations with which we all are obliged to comply. As far as I know, the Official State Gazette publishes 250.000 pages a year; the regional ones, 800.000 a year. You read it right: no typo there. One million pages a year. Maybe in…
From a Morgan Stanley research note, a cautionary tale on what happens when the US Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing tap is closed and, more globally, when central banks stop supporting currently struggling economies in the developed countries. Analysts describe QE termination as one of the main risks of the next stage in the cycle… in Europe, too. “Our analysis of European equities around the first hike by the Fed historically…
MADRID | Analysts at Barclays said Tuesday in a report that they are less than convinced that the productive capacity of the US economy, the famous output gap, is as large as the Federal Reserve believes. And the consequences of this realisation spell further trouble for any global economic recovery. According to Barclays experts in Madrid, once investors acknowledge that China’s GDP is slowing and that the stimulus measures may…