Intro Cross-currency basis swaps, also known as basis swaps, are contracts in which two counterparties agree to exchange interest payments according to two floating rates as well as notional principals denoted in two different currencies. Theoretically, covered interest rate parity should hold in absence of arbitrage opportunities. Here S and Read more…
[edmc id= 3290]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States A flurry of US data came out this week. Consumer sentiment came in at 91.3 in November, below an initial reading of 93.1. New home sales rose to 10.7%, taken as positive despite coming in below consensus. Consumer spending increased 0.1% Read more…
[edmc id= 3279]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Once again, the discussion around the expected Fed policy decisions in December has dominated the week in the US markets. The minutes of the Fed October meeting, released on Wednesday, hardened expectations of an interest rate hike. They also hinted at Read more…
[edmc id= 3197]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States The one just ended has been a pretty volatile week for the US market, with investors continuing to show some concern about the possibility of a rate hike in December in an environment of still uneven economic growth. Deteriorating growth outlooks Read more…
[edmc id= 3174]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States US economy has seen many macroeconomic data being released this week, in particular regarding the labour market, while the FED governor had a speech that has strongly affected the markets on Wednesday. The labour market has been the main actor of Read more…
[edmc id= 3109]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States This week has been very intensive due to the large amount of macroeconomic data that have stricken the US economy. On the labour market side, the situation continues to improve. In fact, the initial jobless claim beat expectations, 260K requests against Read more…
[edmc id= 3009]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States October still seems to be a very positive month for US equities. Some analysts pointed it out as the month for a possible rate hike, but it ended up being positive so far, even if uncertainties about the long-awaited rate hike Read more…
[edmc id= 2948]BSIC Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States The new positive data regarding the labour market and the speech of the FOMC regarding the recent decision of the FED not to hike interest rates have impacted US markets in the past week. For what concerns the labour side, the Initial Read more…
BSIC Weekly Market Brief United States The major benchmarks were mixed as worries over China’s waning commodity demand and the potential for new rules on drug pricing gave way to a late-week rally. Stocks fell sharply at the start of the week, reaching back toward the lows that they had Read more…
BSIC Weekly Market Brief United States Last week decision by the FED to keep the cost of money unchanged was still affecting the stock market, pushing the S&P500 down during the first part of this week. On the other hand, the yield on the 10-year Treasury Notes has floated quite Read more…
The first point is that the Greek equity index level is very stretched: RSI is now over 70 and price levels already reached the upper Bollinger band. Although this would already be enough to short the index, a closer look at historical data corroborates this feeling. The true driver seems Read more…
After three days we decided to close our position on the EURUSD as our trade did not play out. In the end we were almost flat so we did not lose money. However we keep our bullish view on the USD and we decided to change the pair and to Read more…
This week was dominated by the US and European central bankers speeches. They both confirmed their accommodative monetary policy. However the FED just confirmed its commitment to the bond buying program until the economy would have showed sign of improvement. The ECB, on the other side, decided to take really Read more…
Gold’s fall coupled with worrying macroeconomic data ignited a risk-off sentiment this week, turning investors far more pessimistic. If we add the UK downgrade, usual May sell-in and the weak momentum across markets of last week, we can imagine a bearish scenario for the coming days. In particular, we believe Read more…
How big is Cyprus’ economy? GDP of €18.0bn as of 2011 (latest official figure) Why does Cyprus need a bailout? Did Cyprus have an irresponsible/spendthrift Government? No, it is its banks that are the problem. Cyprus’ Debt/GDP ratio stood at 49% in 2008 and rose to 71% by 2011 Read more…