Posts
Sunday’s eagerly anticipated meeting of Euro Zone leaders has failed to deliver any concrete solution for solving the debt crisis. There has luckily been one unanimous agreement – that another meeting is required for this Wednesday. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, stated that by Wednesday evening…
European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, views this weekend’s meeting of Euro Zone leaders as being important enough to reschedule the date by a week, from the 17th October to the 23rd October. The hope was that the additional week would give European leaders time to come up with a…
Having won the preliminary vote yesterday evening, Greek PM Papandreou now needs to secure the final ballot against the background of the second day of a 48-hour general strike. The vote in Greece happened as Merkel and Sarkozy met in Frankfurt at an event to mark Trichet’s departure from the…
This is the week in which our friends across the Atlantic celebrate Thanksgiving. In the current climate of economic and political uncertainty across the globe, though, it’s not clear exactly what they’ll be giving thanks for. With one in eleven people officially unemployed, house prices lower than they were a…
The eurozone debt crisis rumbles onwards. Spanish yields edged higher after a disappointing government debt auction yesterday. 10-year yields are back at 6.834, marking a new post-euro high. Italian borrowing costs rose back above 7%. British PM Cameron visits Van Rompuy in Brussels and then Chancellor Merkel in Berlin. He…
10 year Spanish Bond Yields have this morning hit a Euro era high of 6.57%, this is despite evidence that the ECB was yesterday involved in the purchasing of Spanish and Italian debt. The role of the ECB within the Bond Markets was yesterday the topic of disagreement between Europe’s…
The Bank of England will today release its quarterly inflation report. The Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision in October to resume its asset purchase program suggests that the report will show inflation dropping well below 2% over the next two years. This plus the fact that inflation looks to have…
Italy and Greece now have “technocrat” leaders in place – the word is derived from the Greek word “tekhne” meaning skill and advocates the replacement of politicians with scientists and engineers who have the technical expertise to manage the country’s economy. The term became popular in the US during the…
The return of some semblance of stability to Europe looks to have encouraged equity markets this morning. Former European Commission Mario Monti has replaced Berlusconi and Italy’s Prime Minister and now leads an emergency government with a mandate to ensure that austerity measures are fully implemented. As ever, the real…
Despite a more positive end to Thursday, volatility continues to remain elevated (VIX Index remains above 30).The end of the week has seen Italy and Greece, announce firm commitments to form governments led by market friendly candidates. Italian bond yields have declined although remaining worryingly high for the ECB and…