Download PDF Introduction Now-casting methods are a class of forecasting models originally used in meteorology, and that later found useful applications in economics and finance. The first paper that generalizes the use of now-casting methods in economics is Giannone, Reichlin, and Small (2008). The idea of now-casting is that high-frequency Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Economic indicators are statistical data points and metrics that provide insights into the overall health and performance of an economy. These indicators help economists, policymakers, businesses, and investors assess and understand various aspects of economic activity. Economists and analysts use these indicators to monitor economic trends, assess Read more…
Download PDF US The week in US markets was marked by losses in all major indices apart from the Nasdaq and Russell 2000, up 0.06% and 0.48% respectively. The S&P closed the week down 0.74%, the Dow Jones was down 1.34%, the Russell 3000 Value and Growth were down 0.89% Read more…
Download PDF Introduction & Background In a time marked by significant shifts in infrastructure demand driven by the energy transition and the development of new technologies, project finance has emerged as a pivotal financing mechanism. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the stricter regulation on banks and their lending requirements has Read more…
Download PDF US US equities mainly lost this past week, with their most followed index closing this week almost 3% down (S&P500). Russell 2000 led the way down with a 3.82% decline week on week, closely followed by the tech heavy tracker (Nasdaq composite) which closed 3.62% down compared to Read more…
Download PDF Introduction 50 years ago, the financial industry changed forever with the introduction of the Black-Scholes model for options pricing. However, the story started much earlier with less sophisticated approaches and has evolved significantly over the last century, encompassing notable frameworks such as the binomial tree in discrete time, Read more…
Download PDF The Sovereign Wealth Fund’s first love – Sports, Media and Entertainment In October 2021, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) completed a £305m takeover of Newcastle United by acquiring an 80% stake from British retail tycoon Mike Ashley. According to research conducted by SPORT+MARKT, the Premier League, England’s Read more…
Download PDF Introduction February 26th 2007 marked one of the peaks of the pre-financial crisis exuberance: KKR [NYSE: KKR] and TPG [NASDAQ: TPG], together with a number of banks including Goldman Sachs [NYSE: GS] and Lehman Brothers, announced the acquisition of the Texas power company TXU for an astounding $44.3bn Read more…
Download PDF One of the biggest secular trends in central banking policy since its inception has been increased transparency through more regular and varied forms of communication. The hope is that by being transparent, market participants can price in the policy path more gradually, lowering the chances of wild bursts Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Investment in defence tech start-up companies has surged over the past years as geopolitical tensions across the globe keep escalating. US venture capital firms raised their investments in defence start-ups from less than $16bn in 2019 to $33bn in 2022. The first five months of 2023 alone Read more…
Download PDF Introduction For the last two years, the large majority of central banks have been hiking rates and conducting quantitative tightening programs to fight against the inflationary pressures witnessed in almost every country after the Covid reopening, supply chain shocks, Russia-Ukraine war, labor shortages, and other related factors. Despite Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Lackluster equity capital markets are showing signs of recovery, after almost two years of low activity. The downturn was initially caused by rising uncertainty as high inflation, rising interest rates and a gloomy economic outlook that encouraged investors to ditch growth stocks and turn to safer, more Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The purpose of this article is to investigate whether gold, and in particular its spot returns against other currencies, display some correlation with other macroeconomic drivers, particularly with monetary policy decisions by Central banks. Gold: Anti-Cyclical Asset or simple Commodity? In the realm of financial markets and Read more…
Download PDF Introduction A new and ambitious proposal launched by U.S. regulators has taken the commercial banking industry by storm, with mixed reactions from bank executives, analysts and politicians. Fed Chair Jerome Powell came out in support of the proposal but admitted that regulators have a difficult task ahead of Read more…
Download PDF China’s current economic downturn Over the past decades, China’s economic trajectory has signaled its resilience and strategic prowess. It went from farming to manufacturing and became a leader in technology and infrastructure. Symbols of modern progress were quickly incorporated into the cityscapes’ once-grand historical settings. However, the recent Read more…