Troika Ends Mission on Greece
The EU/IMF/ECB completed their mission in Greece and approved the next aid installment in early July. In the statement, the troika said that “the government has committed to an ambitious medium-term fiscal strategy, reinvigoration of fiscal and broader structural reforms is necessary to further reduce the deficit and achieve the critical mass of reforms needed [...]
Merkel Comments are Euro Positive
German Chancellor Merkel yesterday ruled out any sort of change in Greece’s debt structure before 2013 could signal a change in stance. Many Germans officials were recently and openly talking about restructuring. Now, perhaps Merkel is clamping down on this with the hopes that taking the Greece restructuring option off the table may reduce market [...]
EIA Concerned Over Lack of Oil Supply
The Global oil market urgently needs extra supplies to prevent economic damage to importing countries that could derail the global recovery, the governing board of the International Energy Agency during the past week. OPEC will meet in early June to discuss its production ceiling, but officials at several member countries have said that a production [...]
Housing Drags on US Equities
The US released housing and manufacturing economic data. Housing Starts declined last month falling 10.6% from a month earlier to an annual rate of 523,000, according to the Commerce Department. March’s figures were revised upward to an annual rate of 585,000. New-home construction in April was down 23.9%. New building permits, a gauge of future [...]
European Peripheral Restructuring Discussions Continue
European finance ministers meet today to discuss the aid packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, starting at 3pm in Brussels. The Greek government will reportedly propose a €76bn series of spending cuts and assets sales, which intends to counter some of the criticism and what appears to be increased political resistance by Germany to providing [...]
Soft CPI Pressure Swiss Franc
The CHF is amongst one of the worst performers on the day versus the dollar, plunging nearly 0.8% after reporting softer-than-expected CPI data. April prices came in at 0.3% y/y and only increased 0.1% m/m. With the SNB thought to be moving towards policy tightening, the sharp deceleration in prices may reintroduce the threat of [...]
Sterling Hit After Lackluster Economic Data
Sterling has taken a hit after worse than expected PMI data was released, followed up by a weak outlook by retailers for future sales. Manufacturing has been the bright spot in the UK economy, but today’s PMI at 54.6 was the weakest in 7 months, below expectations, and as well, the prior month’s figure was [...]
Gold Makes All Time High on Fed Dovish Stance
Gold surged to new all-time highs after Ben Bernanke green lit higher assets prices while stating that rates would remain low for an extended period of time. When asked in a question and answer session about inflation, the Chairman of the FOMC continue to state that commodity inflation would likely be transitory. The policy that [...]
US Stocks Tumble on S&P Downgrade
S&P Ratings Services cut its outlook on U.S. debt to negative, increasing the likelihood of a potential downgrade from its triple-A rating. The rating agency sees a rising budget deficits and government debt remains unclear. The move comes amid continued disagreement among politicians on how to address fiscal woes as economic growth remains slow. S&P [...]
Irish Downgrade Add to European Uncertainty
The euro zone periphery remains in the news with Moody’s cutting Ireland 2 notches to the lowest investment grade rating, and maintaining a negative outlook. Interestingly, this followed Fitch’s removal of Ireland from credit watch yesterday. Irish sovereign yields had generally been falling since the bank stress tests were announced at the end of March, [...]
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