James Alexander via Historinhas | The chickens continue to come home to roost for the Bank of England and its masters at the UK Treasury. The pathetic attempt of the a UK government minister to blame Brexit worries for the UK economic slowdown was truly breath-taking in its cheek.
Kate Gordon via Caixin| It’s official: we’re in a time of energy transition. On April 22, Earth Day, the UN’s most recent climate deal – known as the Paris Agreement – will be formally signed in New York, ushering in a new era of country-led action to reduce carbon emissions.
The long-awaited booklet from the British government on the forthcoming European Union (EU) referendum arrived recently in the post-boxes of 27 million households in the United Kingdom at a cost of more than £9 million ($12 million), all of which has been paid for by the taxpayer.
Spain’s second biggest bank BBVA said it posted a 53.8% drop in net profit to 709 million euros in the first quarter to March from a year earlier. The bank explained that quarterly results were hampered by a number of factors, including the impact of exchange rates, lower results from NTI and the lack of corporate operations.
Julius Baer Research | After last Thursday’s European Central Bank (ECB) meeting, the US Fed and the BoJ are due to report this week. Will these three heavy-weight central banks do whatever it takes to reflate the global economy? We believe definitely, yes, if reflation does not unfold as desired.
Natixis AM | In Q1 I had the chance to travel and spend some time with our U.S. advisor and investor clients. While no two portfolios are identical, I was struck by one major commonality: the amount of cash and uninvested balances left in portfolios. On a recent trip to the West Coast, advisors frequently noted portfolios with 10%–40% (!) cash.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | At the Eurogroup that took place in Amsterdam last week, Greece’s lenders decided to “stack” more measures just as the director of the International Monetary Fund’s European department Poul Thomsen appears to have predicted in the leaked teleconference recently published by WikiLeaks.
Banco Santander S.A. (SAN) stock reached year maximums (+2.5% to €4.69) after the bank reported its Q1 results on Wednesday. Despite a 5% net profit decline in Q1 to €1.63bn (mostly due to the depreciation of various currencies against the euro), Spain’s largest bank by market value beat expectations.
UBS | We hosted three meetings in HK this week for Chinese construction companies, which included China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), China Railway Group (CRG) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).
Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | Probably bank and other financial institution bailouts, within context, are positive for the economy. Indeed, aggressive robustly financed bailouts should be conventional policy, while other regulations eschewed, as long as shareholders and convertible bondholders take the first, big and hard hit of any major financial institution failure.