MADRID | March 26, 2015 | By Ana Fuentes | In the second part of our exclusive interview with the IOSCO Secretary General, David Wright speaks about corporate oversight and the need to change a culture which has conflicts of interests at its centre. [You can check Part 1 here]
Iris Mir | China aims to recover the ancient Silk Road to create an unprecedented trade link between Asia and Europe. Least developed Chinese provinces would also benefit largely from the ‘one belt, one road’ project as Beijing will need to invest greatly in infrastructure and high-speed railways. Local governments see the project as a golden opportunity to revive stagnating growth.
MADRID | By Sean Duffy | Market fears about Greece eased somewhat on Thursday, with Spanish banks recovering the ground lost earlier in the week. Friday brings new data on unemployment and GDP which may bring further good news for the Spanish economy
ZURICH | UBS analysts | Our central case is that we will not have deflation in any country except for Spain in 2015. But we cannot rule out the possibility of deflation, so here we look at assets that may outperform during periods of deflation. Generally deflation is bad for equity which de-rates aggressively but the story is more nuanced because particular sectors and styles are affected quite differently.
ZURICH | UBS analysts | In addition to setting out our thoughts by sub-sector (capex, mobile devices, semis), we outline themes and stock specific catalysts for 2015, including a review of potential M&A and possible hikes in cash returns. We also highlight each stock’s investment drivers (positive and negative) through 2015. In general we see another robust year for semi capex, softer telecom capex (but stable vendor revenue), ongoing strong growth in low end smart-phones, a medium-term inventory correction in analog semis (with solid underlying trends), and the continuing emergence of mobile payments.
FRANKFURT | By Lidia Conde | Is Germany living in a crazy world? That’s what many journalists hint at. “The tortoise cycle will continue,” says Johannes Müller, responsible for the management of Deutsche Bank’s large estates. “The interest rates will remain rock-bottom at least until 2016.” This represents an opportunity for the stock exchanges, because the fear of risk is decreasing. “The ECB wants to weaken the Euro with its low interest rates policy, which is also an opportunity to invest in Dollars and real estate.”
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | The designs of the markets are unfathomable. Mario Draghi might forget the QE idea and the British housing sector might collapse. These are some of the Saxo Bank’s ludicrous forecasts for 2015. A year ago they claimed there would be a default in the Russian debt and the collapse of the oil price, and they were right. Nonetheless, most of the experts that talked to The Corner agree on a scenario for 2015 led by the ECB’s quantitative easing, the oil price reduction and low interest rates.
ZURICH | UBS analysts | The recent general strength of the dollar has a bearing on commodity prices, clearly. Commodities are universally priced in dollars, and as homogenised products dollar appreciation should lead to a decline in commodity prices in dollar terms. However, the strength of the dollar against sterling (in 2008/9) or against the yen (sporadically since 2012) did not lead to UK or Japanese exporters cutting the dollar price of their manufactured products or services.
ZURICH | UBS analysts | In addition to setting out our thoughts by sub-sector (capex, mobile devices, semis), we outline themes and stock specific catalysts for 2015, including a review of potential M&A and possible hikes in cash returns. We also highlight each stock’s investment drivers (positive and negative) through 2015. In general we see another robust year for semi capex, softer telecom capex (but stable vendor revenue), ongoing strong growth in low end smart-phones, a medium-term inventory correction in analog semis (with solid underlying trends), and the continuing emergence of mobile payments.
MADRID | The Corner | Chairman at Bundesbank and member of the ECB’s Government Council Jens Weidmann warned -again- that more ECB measures to solve low inflation are difficult and could face legal limits. As markets await for Mr Draghi’s appearance on Thursday, ECB’s Benoit Coeure insisted in a Bloomberg TV interview they won’t “rush to a new decision without knowing.”