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…
US On Wednesday some important economic figures were released. The Core CPI Index and the CPI Index went up respectively by 0.3% and 0.5% (MoM) in January fueling up US inflation expectations; the movement was larger than forecasted and was offset by the data on Retail Sales which went down Read more…
Introduction This article throws light on an important decision about Euribor that came out this week on May 4th. The decision refers to the conclusion of the pre-live exercise that was carried out to determine the change in method of calculation of Euribor. We will proceed in the following way: Read more…
Market Recap 05-03-2017 United States Despite experiencing a downward correction towards the closing of the week, US equity indices reached new record levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new record level by breaching the 21.000 mark. On Wednesday, it peaked at 21.115, to close the week at 21.005, Read more…
This week the market division wrote about US, UK and EU, with a particular focus on what is happening in Greece. US The market mover this week in US was the inflation figure – consumer prices fell 0.1% in March with respect to last year, but the core measure of Read more…
There’s a famous saying among financiers : either stress tests are done correctly and banks fail miserably, either they are poorly done in order to make them a success. It is very likely we are in the second situation. Victor Constancio, vice-president of the ECB, declared that not only the Read more…
Two days ago, during its regular policy meeting, the ECB left interest rates unchanged and Mario Draghi said the “council was comfortable acting next time.” He signaled that there was a unanimous belief that the current inflation rate of 0.7% is unacceptable. He also stated that the strength of the Read more…
The European debt crisis seems to have taken the way of recovery and the rates for European government bonds reflect a positive economic outlook in the Euro area. The Euro Stoxx 50 Index includes Europe’s leading Blue-chips companies. Actually, these companies are considered as safe as AAA European countries (Germany, 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…
The main rationale for the trade is a possible positive surprise of the European economy by the end of the year. The periphery has performed well and the recent resolution of the Berlusconi’s issue has reduced the political risk of the area. Moreover, the economic performances outline the beginning of 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…
Object: €3.0 billion issuance of Obrigações do Tesouro (OT) (fixed rate bonds), interest rate 5.65%, annual coupons On May 6th the Republic of Portugal issued its first new government bonds since requesting an international bailout two years ago, in a heavily-oversubscribed offer of 10-year debt that raised €3bn. The bonds 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…
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…