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Markets 23rd January 2012

Earnings season? Beware of the glitch!

All obvious events are treacherous animals: take for instance the understandable fact that publicly traded companies do their best for each earnings season to appear and sound as joyous as investors would have dreamt. The new accounting system of 2007, primarily based on international standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), raises target information to the category of the golden calf of the accounting rules. Among these parameters, professors Leandro…

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Markets 19th January 2012

A 68% haircut for Greece’s bonds? And the CDS?

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The markets are looking very closely at Greece after the negotiations for the bailout froze due to issues involving the private sector participation. The press is now speculating over a possible 68% haircut to bear by creditors as reported in the Financial Times on Wednesday. As Nordkapp analysts explain this is the road toward a deleveraging frame “upon which the solutions to the European…

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Markets 19th January 2012

Spanish debt challenges the agencies’s ‘implicit’ ratings

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The rating agencies never rest, much less when they talk about those countries suffering the most. Specifically, Fitch and S&P have been looking at Spain. The first has warned that it will probably downgrade Spain’s solvency rating by one or two notches by the end of January. According to Fitch, and even though its analysts admit the good will of the new government’s fiscal…

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Markets 17th January 2012

Inverseguros’ Alberto Matellán: “The Euro could go below $1.20”

By Alfredo Aranda, in Madrid | The course of the euro seems to be clearly bearish, according to some analysts. However, in contrast with previous situations, the depreciation of the single currency is more the result of the actions of the ECB than due to traditional factors such as monetary or economic policies. According to Alberto Matellán, the liquidity injection carried out by both the Fed and the ECB are directly…

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Markets 16th January 2012

Barclays: “S&P will not cut any sovereign rate in a one or two-year period”

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | After some weeks of good tone in the European stock markets, they suffered the consequences on Monday of the massive rating cut by S&P last weekend. The Ibex35 woke up today with shares drowning in red, except for Ebro Foods and Gas Natural, and is being dominated by volatility for the rest of the day.However, it is the rating agencies’s credibility which is being called…

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Markets 10th January 2012

BBVA blames 4Q ’11 losses on US poor economic performance

According to a statement made to the Spanish regulator CMNV, BBVA will proceed to make an extraordinary adjustment to the value of its goodwill in the U.S. which will have a negative impact in the amount of €1bn (net after tax). BBVA justifies this decision on the poor long term prospects in the country, in contrast with the positive performance of the division. Banco Sabadell analysts explain that this adjustment…

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Markets 9th January 2012

Santander reaches EBA’s 9pc core capital, aims to achieve 10pc

MADRID | Banco Santander has reiterated its goal of having 10% core capital at the close of June, 2012, one point above the level required by the EBA. During the last few months of 2011 Banco Santander has carried out a series of measures regarding capital, allowing it to achieve a core capital ratio of 9% ahead of the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) deadline of June 30th, 2012. The Spanish…

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Markets 2nd January 2012

Barclays: “US vulnerable to markets’ attacks like the EU”

A note from Barclays Spain: “The Fed’s double mandate (inflation and employment) has probably contributed to the present crisis. Greenspan, faced with the necessity to improve the anemic growth, but probably to a greater extent faced with the pressure exerted by Congress and American society to create employment, (which still has not picked up despite the GDP’s increase) maintained interest rates low for too long, promoting together with other factors…