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Articles by The Corner

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The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.
US jobs

World economy 4th July 2020

US Strongest Surge Of New Jobs Since 1939, But No Major Surprise

Janwillem Acket (Chief Economist, Julius Baer) | Even though the June figure of overall non-farm job creation in the US (to which all the major segments of the economy contributed) is a historical high since the records started in 1939, there are bitter aftertastes. In fact, continued jobless claims until 20 June, i.e. during the period of data collection for the non-farm jobs, actually rose to 19.29 M, from 19.231 M a week earlier, and the four-week average until 27 June was still at 1.504 M, only slightly down from 1.621 in the previous week.

UST10Y 10YGerman Bund

World economy 3rd July 2020

U.S. Treasuries Watch: Thinking Globally

Kevin Flanagan, Head of Fixed Income Strategy, WisdomTree | While we don’t envision the UST 10-year yield revisiting the aforementioned 2018/2019 levels any time in the foreseeable future, it no longer has the same tailwind speed ‘at its back’ when ‘thinking globally’.

BBVA Texas

Ibex, Markets 3rd July 2020

BBVA Bets On US Market With The Opening Of 15 New Branches In Texas

These branches, which have already received the relevant opening authorisations, are part of BBVA USA’s five-year strategic plan announced a few months ago. “Although the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the migration of operations from branches to digital channels, in the short term and perhaps beyond, the truth is that banking is a people business,” said Larry Franco, head of retail banking for BBVA USA.

Eight Spanish banks brands amongst the 500 most valued worldwide

Ibex, Markets 3rd July 2020

Ibex Banks’ Capitalization Has Dropped 40% in the first semester 2020

The market capitalisation of Spain’s six leading banks has slumped by approximately 53.11 billion euros. All the lenders recorded declines in their share prices, which ranged from 39.3% for CaixaBank to 54.9% for Banco Sabadell. The combined market capitalization of the six banks at the end of the first half was 76.398 billion euros, compared to 129.509 billion end-2019.

Indonesiaok

World economy 2nd July 2020

Indonesia Debt Monetization: Not Inflationary But Plenty Of Baggage And Not Doing Much To Help Growth

Trihn D. Nguyen (Natixis) | Currently, 32% of government bonds are held by foreign investors and the price of that debt is 5.4% for the 2-yr and 7.2% for the 10-year. Even after Bank Indonesia (BI) embarked on rate cuts of 75bps in 2020 to 4.25% and outright purchases of government bonds, the government is asking the central bank to take one step further and buy 60% financing needs in 2020 at zero interest.

Amadeus

Ibex, Markets 2nd July 2020

Amadeus Obtains €200 M EIB Loan For Innovation In The Tourism Sector

Amadeus continues to raise financing in the current difficult situation. The EIB’s loan’s principal will be used to finance research and development activities for a variety of new technology solutions for airlines, airports, travel agencies and railways. The company will carry out this R&D in 2020-2021.

OFICINA Empleo Spain

Spanish economy 2nd July 2020

Temporary Layoffs Gradually Lifted In Spain: 1.56 M Workers Have Taken Up Their jobs, 1.8 M Still On Hold

The recovery in employment in Spain is proving to be a struggle at best, and a mirage at worst. The data shows that the trend in unemployment growth is slowing: unemployed in June rose by 5,100 people compared to 26,573 the previous month, 282,891 in April and 302,265 people in March. However, this month of June was the worst since 2008. The figure continues to exclude workers who are suspended from work or whose hours have been reduced as a result of a temporary layoff scheme.

Spains productivity

European economy 2nd July 2020

Productivity Is Stagnating In Europe; In Spain It Is Counter-Cyclical

Matilde Mas (Funcas) | Since the beginning of the 21st century, productivity growth has experienced an almost generalized slowdown, albeit of unequal intensity, in most developed countries. And this is despite the accelerated process of innovation accompanying the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is the phenomenon known as the productivity puzzle. Among the large EU-15 countries – Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK – the general pattern has been a slowdown in labour productivity since around 2005.

gold can be considered a sound currency, as the "ultimate means of payment".

Markets, World economy 1st July 2020

The Gold Rally Continues

Carsten Menke, Head Next Generation Research, Julius Baer | The gold rally continues. Prices pushed higher yesterday, approaching USD 1,800 per ounce for the first time since 2011. Looking back, there were just 26 days in gold’s history on which it traded above that level, almost all of them occurring in August and September 2011, i.e. during the eurozone debt crisis. Holdings of physically backed gold products, our preferred gauge of safe-haven demand, recorded 95 tonnes of inflows in June, taking the year-to-date total to more than 710 tonnes. These are the biggest inflows ever.