In Sober Look, Marcello Minenna gives us a clue about a possible new breach in the euro’s structure. A few years ago (2011-2012), when the euro was going through its worst time, one of the consequences was that the central banks in the peripheral countries increased their debt position with TARGET2.
Spanish daily newpaper ABC has provided us with some key facts about the €500 notes. Don’t worry: it will be a gradual process, without any deadlines. In other words, they will still have unlimited redemption value, but from 2018 they will no longer be produced. Nothing really traumatic is going to happen to people who have €500 bills.
Banco Santander S.A. (SAN) stock reached year maximums (+2.5% to €4.69) after the bank reported its Q1 results on Wednesday. Despite a 5% net profit decline in Q1 to €1.63bn (mostly due to the depreciation of various currencies against the euro), Spain’s largest bank by market value beat expectations.
Marc Chandler via Caixin | It is official. The yuan will be included in the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDR). The 10.4 percent share is a bit more than I expected, but less than the 14 to 16 percent the IMF’s staff intimated a few months ago. This is a significant event, even if there is no short-term market opportunity.
Countries in the North don’t even want to talk about creating more inflation to help those in the South. Why should we, they say, if they are the debtors? Could they be persuaded that it is in their interests, given that the alternative could be default and the collapse of the eurzone economy and the euro? For the time being, they have allowed the ECB to work on moving away from zero inflation, but not beyond the 2% limit. And even this limit is not expected to be reached until 2017.
The euro started off the week trading momentarily below 1,06 dollars, its lowest exchange rate since mid-April and bringing it ever nearer to parity with the “green back.” The question being asked by many investors now is whether the euro will achieve parity with the dollar in 2016. There are all sorts of forecasts, but the current majority opinion is that the euro has very little downside left.
MADRID | June 24, 2015 | J. P. Marín Arrese | European leaders have probably concluded that expelling Greece from the common euro house might rock its foundations. The high price of supporting a failing partner also helps to fuel a change in sentiment towards the stubborn and rebellious Tsipras government, not to mention mounting pressures from the US administration and the FED.
BNP Paribas | June 4, 2015 | In many respects the Japanese QE experience since 2013 is a pretty good playbook for European equities.
The Corner | April 15, 2015 | According to Barclays, the boost from lower oil prices on household consumption has materialised and has been stronger than expected, while the ECB’s aggressive QE has exceeded their already high expectations, creating the most favourable monetary and financial conditions since the start of EMU.
LONDON | By Apolline Menut via Barclays | Euro area “flash” composite PMIs came in stronger than expected, almost reaching a four-year high at 54.1 (+0.8 points). The rise was primarily driven by a surge in manufacturing output (+1.4 points to 53.5), while confidence continued to improve in the services sector (+0.6 points to 54.3).