BoAmL | After an astonishing 90% increase in spot WTI prices since mid-February, oil market participants are now starting to focus on the timeframe and magnitude of a potential recovery in US shale output. But US producers have yet to bring some rigs back, and oil drilling across in Canada and the US has continued to retrench in recent months.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | | Understandably, when the International Monetary Fund published its Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) last week, its gloomy projections regarding the unsustainability of Greece’s debt drew all the attention. This meant that many overlooked the fact that the Fund was even gloomier about the Greek economy’s long-term growth prospects.
Han Wei via Caixin | Apple Inc. is shifting gears and promoting new apps and services to rev up growth in China amid a slump in sales for its expensive devices as local brands nibble at its market share.
Jarno Lang | Obama is not only a pop-cultural phenomenon, but also a pragmatic leader. His successor will have to deal with a worldwide net of dependencies.
Julius Baer Research | US natural gas prices surged more than 5% yesterday in part driven by slowing production and warm weather forecasts suggesting increased power demand. The official monthly statistics released yesterday showed a sequential decline of natural gas production in March, confirming the view among analysts that the shale oil drilling downturn will weigh on associated natural gas supplies.
The average number of employed people signed on with the Social Security rose 1.13% to 17.661.840 in May from April, according to data released by the Employment and Social Security Ministry. Meanwhile, the number of jobless fell by 119,768 people in May from the previous month, standing at below 4 million for the first time in six years.
UBP | Unsurprisingly, the ECB kept its monetary policy unchanged. Corporate bonds buying are going to start on June 8th and the TLTRO on June 22nd.
Andrew Sheng via Caixin | There are two main lessons that we can draw from the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis: the failure of mainstream economics to predict and solve the crisis, and its inability to explain the rise of the Chinese economy
BBVA Research | The latest personal income and outlays report by the BEA, which is the favourite indicator for the Federal Reserve to measure deflation, showed that income continued to expand at a solid pace (0. 4 % MoM) , while spending increased dramatically (1 % MoM) in April . The increase in income was in line with consensus expectations, while the consumer spending increase was significantly higher (consensus expectations stood at 0.7% MoM). The increase in consumer spending in April was the highest since August 2009 .
The Spanish banks could use mergers to achieve cost savings of up to 27%, due the increase in asset volumes these transactions would bring. The entities emerging from these tie-ups with over 200 billion euros in assets would cut costs between 8% and 27%, while those with 50-100 billion euros in assets could save between 4% and 20%, according to the latest edition of think-tank Funcas’ bi-monthly Economic Information Journal.