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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.
oil spain1

Spanish economy 27th April 2020

Historic Drop In The Oil Price: How Will It Affect The Spanish Economy?

Caixabank Research | A fall in the price of oil provides a boost to the economy of countries that are net importers of crude oil, as is the case for Spain. Cheaper oil equates to an increase in the real disposable income of households, such that it also supports aggregate consumption. However, the health crisis that has gripped us following the COVID-19 outbreak will result in this boost derived from a lower oil price not being reflected in the economy, at least for the time being.

frontier debt

World economy 26th April 2020

The Case For Frontier Debt: A Growth Story

Union Bancaire Priveé (UBP) | Fixed-income frontier markets have seen significant growth in both importance and liquidity over the past decade. While still mainly thought of as part of global EM investments, frontier markets have “grown up” and deserve to be considered separately.

ECB stimulus package

European economy 25th April 2020

ECB Takes The Highway To High Yields

Bank of America Global Research | On 22 April 2020, the ECB announced temporary measures to mitigate the impact of possible rating downgrades on collateral availability. This includes the acceptance of certain non-investment grade rated assets as collateral for its credit operations. In the collateral easing measures announced on 7 April, the central bank announced plans to temporarily mitigate effects from rating downgrades.

Gilead vaccine

World economy 24th April 2020

The Desire To Find The Covid19 Vaccine Falls Into The Trap Of High Expectations: Gilead’ Trials Fail

There has been a setback in the progress of a treatment to cure Covid-19. It was learned that remdesivir (Gilead’s antiviral) had not shown sufficient clinical improvement in the first clinical trial and even had important side effects. According to the company, these conclusions are associated with the trial that had to be stopped in China due to a lack of patients.

Eurogroup

European politics 24th April 2020

The European Union Is Slow And Lacks Solidarity In The Face Of The Coronavirus Crisis

As expected, European Union leaders yesterday approved the 540 billion euro package agreed by the Eurogroup last week (focused on providing the most urgent liquidity). But there was no progress on the long-awaited European Recovery Fund. As usual, details such as its amount or the distribution of the economic burden, between non-repayable transfers and loans, have yet to be specified. The Fund, which is expected to reach over EUR 1 trillion, is not expected to start operations until 2021.

cash clunkers

European economy 24th April 2020

Germany Could Propose Another “Cash For Clunkers” Programme To Alleviate The Damage To The Auto Sector

Santander Credit Research | The scrapping programme to remove older vehicles and replace them with new ones helped Germany’s economy to emerge quickly from the consequences of the financial crisis a decade ago. Senior managers in the automotive industry, as well as trade unions, are due to meet with the German chancellery in Berlin on May 5 to discuss ways of overcoming the economic crisis. And this programme may be on the table. 

Repsol

Ibex, Markets 23rd April 2020

Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Also Buys Shares in Repsol Amid The Crisis

The increase in WTI to $15.1/barrel and Brent to $22.22/barrel has boosted Repsol’s shares, which were trading today 2.06% higher. Despite this small respite, the Spanish oil firm has not been able to escape the latest moves of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and is amongst the big European oil companies included in a list of stock market forays on the part of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) over the last few weeks, reported Financial Times.

gestamp china2

Markets, Spanish Small & Mid Caps 23rd April 2020

Gestamp’s Plants in China Move Towards Normality

The company has been progressively closing factories worldwide since mid-March. Europe was first, followed by America, but now it expects a gradual re-opening in the coming weeks. The only exception is China, where there has already been some opening up. Gestamp has 11 plants, two R&D centres in China, representing less than 10% of the 112 production plants that it has globally. They hope that activity will return to normal more or less imminently in the rest of its factories.

And China arrived and defeated the Fed

World economy 23rd April 2020

The Fed Can’t Print Gold

Bank of America Global Research | The size of major central bank balance sheets has been stable at 21 to 28% of GDP in the past decade just like the gold price. As central banks and governments double their balance sheets and fiscal deficits we up our 18m gold target from $2000 to $3000/oz. Still, a strong USD backdrop, falling equity market volatility, and weak jewelry demand in India and China may remain headwinds.

Avangrid

Ibex, Markets 22nd April 2020

Iberdrola To Supply ‘Green’ Energy To T-Mobile In The US From A 158 MW Wind Farm

Iberdrola, through its US subsidiary Avangrid, has signed a long-term ‘green’ energy power purchase agreement (‘PPA’ in English) with German telecommunications giant T-Mobile. The energy will be supplied by the Otter Creek wind farm in LaSalle County, Illinois, USA. The company has corporate clients in the US such as Nike, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, amongst others.