Bonds from the European Union have become popular among Japanese investors. Already in July, Japanese funds bought record amount of Italian debt. However in September, they purchased a net 235 billion yen ($2.15 billion) of Spanish bonds, while selling a net 127.7 billion yen of Italian paper during the month, the data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance showed.
Bankinter | As China has overcome the confinement phase, there are good prospects for Singles’ Day in China (11.11) which is expected to reach new highs on the day of the highest volume of online purchases in the world. This year it is expected that 800 million consumers will buy on Singles’ Day (200 of the Generation Z- born at the end of the decade of the 90s – recently incorporated into the consumption chain).
Banca March | Euphoria yesterday in a good part of the world’s stock exchanges, after the Pfizer-BioNTech consortium announced an effectiveness of over 90% in its prototype of a vaccine against the Covid-19. In Europe, the Ibex 35 took the lead (up 8.5%), as it registered the highest rise in a session in the last 10 years. This excellent news reminds us how quickly the world can change once there is a remedy. And it can favour countries and/or sectors which up to now have been more affected by social isolation.
Flosbach von Storch | National debt-to-GDP ratios have already reached historic highs. Gross national debt will likely exceed 260 per cent of GDP in Japan by the end of the year, and reach around 140 per cent in the USA and around 100 per cent in the eurozone. Concerns about the high level of debt being unsustainable in the long run are at least theoretically unjustifiable as long as interest rates and government bond yields remain close to zero. This is because zero interest rates allow practically any deficit or mountain of debt to be easily funded.
Spain is ranked 15th in the World Energy Trilemma Index 2020, published by the World Energy Council and Oliver Wyman. The index positions countries according to their integration of the three dimensions of sustainability, equity and security of supply. As stated in the report, Spain scored the highest in two of the three categories (Energy Equity and Environmental Sustainability). In the Trilemma Index it obtained a score of 77.9 out of 100, moving up one place from last year to fifteenth position.
The Conversation | The American public has had its say and for the first time in a generation denied a sitting president a second term. President’s Trump’s tenure lasted just four years, but in that time he dragged policy on an array of key issues in a dramatic new direction. Joe Biden’s victory presents an opportunity to reset the White House agenda and put it on a different course. Three scholars discuss what a Biden presidency may have in store in three key areas: race, the Supreme Court and foreign policy.
José Ramón Díez Guijarro (Bankia) | Three groups of countries have been formed according to the intensity of the recovery: a) countries with V-shaped recoveries (Asian countries such as Korea or China), which will recover lost GDP levels even before the end of this year; b) countries with asymmetric V-shaped recoveries (US, Germany, etc), which will recover pre-pandemic activity levels by the end-2021 or early 2022 ; and c) lagging countries (southern Europe and much of Latin America), which will take at least another year (2023) to recover.
The decision of who will follow Angela Merkel to become Germany’s next chancellor is still up in the air. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party conference to elect a new leader has been postponed until January next year.
Joe Biden, who was declared the winner in America’s presidential election on Saturday, would return the United States to the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization; rejoin the Iran nuclear deal if Iran complies with its terms; extend the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia; and end America’s support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Renta 4 | After the government approved the rescue of Air Europa last week, with an injection of 475 million euros, several media outlets are claiming the executive intends to establish a series of conditions for the operation. In our opinion, these would complicate the acquisition of the airline by IAG. The conditions would include the appointment of two directors, authorisation to approve strategic operations, dismiss and even agree the appointment of the CEO. IAG will be awaiting an official communication.