Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company.
FT markets round-up:“US stocks fell, while the US dollar shot higher after minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting showed policy makers are growing wary of asset purchases and may end their $85bn monthly bond buying programme in 2013. Investors bought the US currency, pushing the dollar index up 0.7 per cent, as the euro touched a three-week low against the greenback, below the $1.31 level. In contrast, gold prices sold off, with the precious metal falling 1.4 per cent after the release of the minutes, to hit a session low at $1,662.34 an ounce. The US 30-year bond sank a full point, while its yield rose to 3.10 per cent. The 10-year note yield jumped 7 basis points to 1.90 per cent. The FTSE All World index spent much of the trading day in negative territory, also dragged lower by declines in most European equity markets. The global benchmark index closed 0.3 per cent lower as the S&P 500 ended the session down 0.2 per cent on the day.” (Financial Times) Read more
Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).
These minutes are for the meeting at which the Fed announced its switch to a version of the Evans’ Rule. While that change was expected, it wasn’t expected to be made as soon as it ultimately was.
The most interesting bit from the minutes below in bold, followed by some quick commentary. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
The "trial of the century" in sovereign debt restructuring, in our humble opinion. The story of Argentina, its holdout creditors, the grande finale (or is it?) of their battle in US courts.
Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company.
Operating leases may not sound all that sexy, but they are a great way to get liabilities off balance sheet. Even better, loads of companies use ‘em! Everyone does it, from airlines to clothing stores, so no need to feel like the odd naughty one out. All it takes is a little structuring to ensure that a finance (aka capital) lease — which does significantly raise liabilities — is booked as an operating lease, keeping debt levels down.
Why then do accounting standard setters want to spoil the parrr-tay by requiring operating leases to come back onto balance sheets? Read more
Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.
A big hat tip to Climateer Investing for helping us catch up on a Telegraph story from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on Japan’s latest plan to stimulate itself out of trouble.
It, by the way, neatly sums up the problem associated with taking QE to the next level which, of course, for the Japanese authorities might have been buying equities outright rather than buying in ETF index form, which they’ve already been doing for a couple of years or so…
Think about it — a central bank en route to becoming a majority holder in a country’s primary equity ETF, is nothing more than a central bank en route to becoming the market. Read more
Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)
Take one warship rescued from asset seizure by bond holdouts.
Add swelling music, defiant rhetoric by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the national flag stirring in the Atlantic breeze, and messages home from crewmen who remained on board while the dispute played out in a Ghanaian port and Hamburg tribunal… Read more
Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.
US budget confrontations loom || US banks seek $10bn foreclosure settlement || Buffett gives solar a boost || BofA to raise lending this year || Goldman pays out stock awards before vote || Avis Budget buys Zipcar || CVC buys Cerved || From Wall St to teaching || Markets Read more
An unlikely beneficiary of the fiscal fudge, perhaps. Here’s Spanish 10 year paper, the yield on which was threatening to drop back below 5 per cent on Thursday. Read more
Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.
She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.
She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.
US budget confrontations loom || Asian markets rise || China services PMI rises || US banks seek $10bn foreclosure settlement || BofA to raise lending this year || Avis Budget buys Zipcar || CVC buys Cerved || From Wall St to teaching Read more
