Norbolsa | French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure more balanced trade with Europe, but the Chinese leader showed little sign of being willing to offer major concessions. In his meetings in Paris, Macron also pressed the Chinese leader to use his influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Xi was arriving in Europe...

Morgan Stanley | The probability of recession especially in the US has increased for most investors in recent weeks. Indeed, our analyst Ellen Zentner has revised her growth estimates downwards (on a 4Q/4Q basis): -10bps for 2023 (to 0.3%) and -20bps in 2024 (to 1%). Even in the case of avoiding technical recession, the impact on the labour market would be unavoidable: the macro team expects new jobs to be...

The European Commission has raised its 2023 growth forecast to 0.9% vs 0.3% and lowered its inflation forecast from 6.1% to 5.65% for this year. The note highlights that domestic demand could turn out to be stronger than expected if the recent declines in wholesale gas prices are passed through to consumer prices more strongly, which we doubt, and consumption proves more resilient. In fact, this has had little reaction...

Santander | Calls are growing for a European fiscal programme. Financed by joint SURE-style emissions guaranteed by member states. In this case, to combat the energy and security crisis as proposed in their open letter by EC Commissioners for Economy and Home Affairs Gentiloni and Breton last Monday. Yesterday it was the turn of Von der Leyen, who called for the EU to seek other sources of funding to accelerate...

Renta 4 | The European Union surprised with a new plan that would label some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as "green" investments after a year of debate among the different governments about which investments are really climate-friendly. Specifically, the Brussels text, still in draft form, includes nuclear power plants already in operation and those to be built at least until 2045, as well as gas-fired power plants, which will enjoy the same recognition until 2030.

Julian Marx (Flossbach Von Storch) | Almost two years have passed since the outbreak of the pandemic and economic output in the Eurozone is still below pre-crisis levels, unlike in the US.The ECB envisages a more cautious monetary policy than the dollar bloc (Australia, Canada and the US): real economic output in the US in calendar year 2021 should already be a good two percent above that of 2019. In the eurozone, on the other hand, the statistics for 2021 will probably remain in some cases significantly below the pre-crisis level.