By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Spain is the word. Everybody looks at Spain with suspicion because it could be the source, not the cause, of the next and penultimate euro crisis. The premium risk goes up, Argentina prepares a takeover on YPF, and the King breaks his hip and his grandson shoots himself in the foot. The rumours I hear tell me that the nation’s government does not expect any help…
Spain feels overwhelmed, to say the least, about the fact that it is these days referred to in countless headlines, euro zone leaders’ comments and foreign market participant analyses. The view from Madrid is that those portraits do not always mix the most accurate data with the intention of extracting a sentenced-to-bailout picture, in most cases. Of course, this is a biased impression, although the Spanish government and the financial industry…
Too true. Undeniably, this was the frightening scene on Friday, which heated the discussion about what’s next for the Kingdom of Spain, with even some Greek bouzouki music on the background. But. Analysts at Sabadell Bolsa reminded the markets of a few facts, probably compelled by the amount of fog gathered during the last days over the state of the Spanish finances and its economic prospects. Although acknowledging that domestic imbalances…
MADRID | Analysts at Barclays in Spain felt so shocked by how little knowledge some market participants can display about the actual situation of the Spanish economy, that decided to act. Why Spain does so poorly compared to the rest of Europe? Well, does it? This is the quick note they wrote on Friday aimed at lending a hand to “some brokers and fund managers, mostly foreign, [who] seem to…
LONDON | Skandia Investment Group believes equities will go higher in 2012 despite their already record performance in the first quarter. Equities would be set to rally again once profit taking comes to an end, SIG told investors Friday in a note. Analysts pointed out that global equities had their strongest quarter in over 10 years on the back of strong economic data and hopes that the European debt crisis was past…
MADRID | Berlin is utterly bewildered, according to official sources, by the clumsy way Madrid is running its current crisis. A high ranking government representative stunned his German counterparts by openly declaring that Spain would be ready to find its way out of the euro if that was the prize to avoid intervention. He wasn’t bluffing. On Monday this week he presented PM Rajoy and ministers in charge of economic matters…
NEW YORK | When feeling overwhelmed with all the economic misery originated by a reckless Wall Street and a lax Washington, the regulator in chief, one tends to calm down thinking positively: at least we learnt the lesson. As the Chinese say, in every crisis there is also an opportunity, and maybe we improved the system. Yet then some articles come up: one pointing to the fact that lenders are…
LONDON | Standard Life Investments, the global investment manager, said on Thursday that the debt deleveraging cycle was showing signs of improvement, especially in the US, while admitting that the process remains a long and complex one after such a major financial crisis. In the latest edition of Global Outlook, Standard Life Investments highlighted that one of the key features differentiating this business cycle from most of its predecessors was…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | A misdiagnosis can be fatal for the patient. Especially if the doctor is German, or Spanish but disciple of the Bundesbank school. Inflation is bad and so the public deficit is, that is the slogan. Let the people discuss whether this or that department should be reduced or not, and what about pensions or public investment?, VAT yes or no?, while the economy gets worse and…
NEW YORK | As the European Central Bank signaled it may resume asset purchases if needed to stem the crisis, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds slid to 5.82%. Notwithstanding the last few days Spanish bonds went under the unwanted spotlight: yields on the 10 years bonds rose to nearly 6% on Tuesday, the highest since January. In less than two months, Spain’s interest rate has risen about one point….