US The week just ended has led losses to US equity indices: the S&P 500 fell 2.16% to 2,743, thus failing to break the resistance line at 2,800-2,815. Similarly, the NASDAQ lost 2.46% and the Dow Jones decreased by 1.80%. This week has not brought major news for what concerns Read more…
Introduction The US Dollar Index was created by the Federal Reserve in 1973. The index was initially intended to provide an external bilateral trade weighted average of the US Dollar as it freely floated against major global currencies. Consequently, the US Dollar Index [ticker: U.S.DX® ] (USDX hereon), is a Read more…
Introduction Venezuela is a state in chaos; this is a systemic issue that arises from many long years of economic mismanagement from the Chavismo administration which has ruled for two decades. These issues are now coming to light given the dismal state of affairs in Venezuela, the most obvious indicator Read more…
Roche Holding AG (SIX: ROG.VZ) – market cap as of 03/09/2019: $233.86bn Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCE) – market cap as of 03/09/2019: $4.32bn Introduction On February 25, 2019, the Swiss multinational healthcare company, Roche, announced that it entered into an agreement to buy Spark Therapeutics in a transaction that Read more…
General Electric Company [GE: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 03/03/2019 $89.40bn Danaher Corporation [DHR: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 03/03/2019 $91.18bn Introduction On Monday 25th February 2019 General Electric (GE) announced the sale of its BioPharma business to Danaher for a total consideration of $21.4 billion, including $21 billion in cash. GE, which had previously come Read more…
Liberty Global plc [LBTYA: NASDAQ] – Market cap as of March 10th $18.36bn Sunrise Communications Group AG [SRCG: SW] – Market cap as of March 10th CHF3.41bn ($3.41bn) Introduction On February 27, 2019, Liberty Global, the biggest international TV and broadband internet company, agreed to the sale of its Swiss Read more…
Introduction Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have constantly been on the rise ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Year over year, increasing amounts of assets are placed in ETFs causing their market share (especially in the United States) to expand to over 25% of total open-end funds in 2018 according to Read more…
US This week saw modest gains on most American indexes, with the s&p increasing by 0.39% and Nasdaq by 0.9%. The Dow remained fairly stable with a loss of -0.02%. Overall the markets seem to be pricing in a relaxed scenario for tariffs as the deadline for trade talks between Read more…
Introduction After examining the main features of the repo market as well as some peculiar characteristics of the European credit repo market (https://bsic.it/the-invisible-gears-repo-agreement-and-the-credit-repo-market-part-1/) we would like to walk you through what happens when a repo fails (and why this might happen) and the recent reform of the CSDR, i.e. the Read more…
Navient Corp. [Nasdaq: NAVI] – Market Cap as of 28/02/2019 $3.07B Introduction: On February 18, 2019, student-loan servicer Navient rejected a $3.2 billion takeover bid from two investors, the hedge fund Canyon Capital Advisors and the private-equity firm Platinum Equity Advisors, as it believed the offer undervalued the company. Navient’s Read more…
The Blackstone Group L.P. [BX: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 26/02/2019 $41.77bn Scout24 AG [G24: XETRA] – Market Cap as of 26/02/2019 €4.96bn Introduction On Friday 15 February 2019 Scout24, the leading German online classifieds group, received a voluntary public takeover offer by Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman. At Read more…
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) – market cap as of 26/02/2019: $69.83 bn KKR & Co Inc Class A (NYSE: KKR) – market cap as of 26/02/2019: $18.97 bn Introduction On February 24th 2019,the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced a landmarked partnership between the national state-owned oil company and Read more…
Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI) – market cap as of 21/02/2018: $3.46bn Introduction On February 12, 2019, Ellie Mae, the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Thoma Bravo LLC, a leading private equity investment firm, in an Read more…
Johnson & Johnson [JNJ: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 19/02/2019 $364.53bn Introduction On February 13th, the healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson announced the acquisition of the privately held surgical robotics firm Auris Health, for approximately $3.4 billion in cash. The terms of the agreement also include additional payments to Read more…
EUROPE During this week European indices have on average soared by 1% . In particular, the German DAX30 started the trading week at 11’267 and closed around 11’460 and the French CAC40 opened at 5’160 and closed at 5’215, both increasing around 1.5%. Differently from core countries, the most important Read more…