Download PDF Introduction Recently, the governments of Argentina and Brazil announced that they are considering the launch of a common currency and are aiming for stronger monetary and economic integration in South America. Furthermore, some of the biggest events in Europe in the last decade included the Euro Crisis and the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Correlation is a pervasive concept in financial markets. It is studied by investors looking for the most reliable way to hedge their exposure while financial products that offer a directional correlation exposure also became substantially more liquid in recent years. Moreover, the substantial mispricing of correlation risk Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The current macroeconomic landscape is shaped by high inflation, increasing interest rates, and growing risk aversion. The diverging realities nations are facing due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the ensuing energy crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the looming global recession, and more, are putting policymakers’ decisions in the limelight. Read more…
Download PDF A persisting trend DISCLAIMER: The EURUSD pair is an exception to general FX notation. We comply with the quoting convention adopted in the industry: when the Dollar strengthens against the Euro, EURUSD moves lower, and vice versa. For charting purposes, however, we use the USDEUR time series. The Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Recent data on the USD/JPY pair showed a significant strengthening of the US dollar against the Japanese currency, reaching an all-time high since 2016, marking almost a 5% decline YTD. This piece of news, however, is only the most recent episode of a significant weakening streak in Read more…
Download PDF USA The US main index dropped sharply on Friday, after the Thanksgiving session, following a new Covid variant thread found in South Africa. “This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning,” the WHO said on Friday. The new variant is still under examination, Read more…
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…
In this article we are going to analyse Brazil’s next General elections, scheduled to be held on October 7 (i.e. today). The first section will present some basic information about Brazil and a brief background on the current political situation. The second part will present key factors on the Brazilian Read more…
Reserve Currencies A reserve currency is defined as a currency held by government for international payment purposes. The most important usages are: Repay back international debt (generally issued in reserve currencies) Defend the domestic currency against depreciation Improve the government credit rating Reserve currencies are many. The IMF chooses the Read more…
Carry Trades and the Interest Parity Condition The uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) condition states that, under risk neutrality, the gain from borrowing a low interest rate currency and investing in a higher interest rate one will, in equilibrium, be matched by an equally large expected loss by a depreciation Read more…
United States The S&P 500 closed the week at $2,399.29, a record high and up 0.63% when compared with the close of the previous week. During the week several important announcements have been released; first of all the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rate unchanged at 0.75%-1.00% following the Read more…
United States After the French election relief and solid first quarter earnings reports the US equities finished the week higher. Slightly more than half of the S&P 500 has reported, showing positive signs of improving economic growth, with best performers tech and industrial companies. The S&P 500 after the rally Read more…
United States Amidst continued geopolitical uncertainty and mixed corporate earnings results, US equities experienced a week of sideways movement. Later in the week however, the major indices recovered some of their previous week´s losses as confidence in president Trump´s tax reforms strengthened again. US treasury secretary Steven Mnunich announced that Read more…
United States US stocks took a break after last week gains. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% closing the week at 2355.54, while large-caps were flat with the Dow Jones at last week’s levels. One of the major drivers of financial markets was the FED releasing the minutes of its mid-March Read more…
The Czech koruna, the currency of an economically relatively small country, recently has gained much attention by an increasing number of speculators. They have been positioning themselves to benefit from a possible appreciation of the Czech currency. For three years, the Czech National Bank (CNB) has kept the koruna above Read more…