Download PDF USA The main U.S. indexes fell this week after data on consumer sentiment was below expectations, raising doubts about the pace that the economic recovery will take and the inflation outlook. The moves in stocks show investors grappling with mixed economic data in the U.S. and China, the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In a recent article on the FT George Soros harshly criticized foreign investment into China, pointing out the many risks that such a move might involve for investors and providing and indictment of what he perceived as worsening conditions of the “rule of law” in China, due Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Structured products are complex OTC derivatives which offer a glance into some of the deeper aspects of pricing; they are hedged with vanilla products where possible, almost always leaving basis risk, the management of which is the art of making markets in SPs. These products are very Read more…
Download PDF USA The main U.S. indexes gained this week after positive quarter releases and good economic data. Investors spent much of April grappling with two competing dynamics: signs of a strong economic rebound in the U.S., and worsening Covid-19 cases elsewhere in the world that threaten to hamper the Read more…
Download PDF In the previous article of our series, we highlighted the questionable use of cross currency swaps and concluded that this kind of window dressing techniques are a manifestation of the larger issue of problematic debt management on the sovereign entity scale. In this article, we delve deeper into Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Industrial metals were in the news in the past few weeks because of the remarkable surge in prices. Copper has received most of the attention, with its spot price topping 10,000$/metric ton on April 29, close to the all-time high of 10,190$/metric ton reached in February 2011. Read more…
Download PDF There’s a Yiddish proverb fittingly saying: “interest on debts can grow without rain”. How can this be? In an ultra-low-rate environment, debt has become ubiquitous to sail through the COVID-19 pandemic and so has the fear related to its sustainability. Countries have taken the center stage in the Read more…
Download PDF What is a SPAC? A Special Purpose Acquisitions Company (SPAC) is a shell company set up by investors with the only purpose of raising money through an IPO in order to eventually acquire another company. They are also known as “blank-check companies” since they generally don’t have a Read more…
Download PDF USA It was a turbulent week for equities due to a flare-up in global coronavirus cases and to the fact that President Joe Biden will seek an increase in the tax on capital gains to 39.6% for those Americans earning more than $1 million to fund education and Read more…
Download PDF USA Volatility is at lowest levels since pre-pandemic, indeed, the stock market ended a pretty stable week. Major indexes rose slightly mainly due to upbeat economic data and the beginning of the US earnings season, the financial sector kicked off with positive results from Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Read more…
Download PDF As we said in the first part of the article, the market continually expands and contracts, going through periods of expansions, peak, decline and recovery. This, consequently, affects all type of assets, especially stocks that go through 4 different cycles. In the previous part, we discussed two of Read more…
Download PDF As of the end of March, financial news worldwide began covering extensively the unraveling of Archegos Capital Management – a family office whose way of conducting business de facto resembled a hedge fund. The speed which characterized this process of wealth destruction and the spillover effects that it Read more…
Download PDF Introduction While it is true that market conditions change, there is an underlying cyclical movement of capital through markets, sectors and individual stocks. The market is simply a function of supply and demand, with price as the final arbiter. Factors that affect supply and demand vary at different Read more…
Download PDF IPOs volatility Initial returns of initial public offerings are usually large, averaging 15.1% over the 1965–2004 period (excluding the dot.com bubble interval that would further boost IPOs returns). For investors that can buy IPOs at the offer price, IPOs are a good short-run investment. However, we should care Read more…
Download PDF USA US indexes ended the week higher, one of the reasons seems to be the minute of the Federal Open Market Committee, which spread positivity on the market. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite kept their upward trend with the latter approaching the 14,000.00 level, a barrier surpassed Read more…