Jennifer Thompson
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Default and bankruptcy in the municipal bond market (part two).
- You’re fired! (again, for fraud).
- The self-destructing Merrill Lynch subsidy.
- VIX and the week before Christmas.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Rio Tinto recommends A$16 per share cash offer for Riversdale – statement.
- Paddy Power to acquire outstanding minority shareholdings in Sportsbet for A$132.6m – statement.
The mortgage finance squeeze
Our national pastime of guessing house prices pauses for no cold breath in the run-up to Christmas. The RICS 2011 Housing Forecast released today brings the estimate that house prices will be 2 per cent lower than present levels at the end of 2011.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: The eurozone needs more than discipline from Germany
Germany rules, the FT columnist writes. It will determine how well the eurozone prospers,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- AstraZeneca shelves development of motavizumab; to take $445m impairment charge — statement.
- AngloIrish announces results of exchange offers for 2014 and 2016 notes — statement.
Why commodities may not be a good bet
According to SocGen’s Dylan Grice, seeking a decent long-term return on commodities is akin to selling coal to Newcastle: rather foolhardy.
For those in need of a history lesson, he has outlined the case of why in his opinion commodities aren’t really so swell.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Cinema takes a trip to Wall Street – again.
- Foreclosure’s whistleblower emerges.
- Japan’s employed underclass.
- That enforcement mechanism for the Volcker Rule in full.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi: Europe cannot default its way back to health
Among the many things we have learnt from this crisis is that governments and financial markets find it difficult to understand each other,
Going up — inflation expectations
Following on from CPI and RPI inflation figures earlier this week, comes the Bank of England’s quarterly gauge of public attitudes to inflation — and it’s showing public expectations of inflation for the coming year at their highest level since August 2008:
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Madoff was Wall Street’s problem
On any measure but profitablity, it has been another miserable year for Wall Street, concluding with Mark Madoff,
An Irish bailout – barely
Fresh off the wires:
DUBLIN, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Ireland’s parliament voted in favour of an 85 billion euro EU/IMF bailout on Wednesday, paving the way for the IMF to approve its portion of the funds later this week.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Why rising rates are good news
Terrified by irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies, the bond market vigilantes are out in force,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Why the iPad should rival the web
Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch are entrepreneurs with an admirable record of ignoring conventional wisdom,
Homeowners luckier (this time)
From the latest Nationwide house price index:
More interesting is their illustration – through a comparison with house price falls in the early 1990s – of the pressures on prices which could contribute to future fluctuations.
Indicator wars
Ignore those slumping Chinese leading indicators at your peril! Or — a dose of bearishness on looking at the OECD’s leading indicators, courtesy of SocGen’s Albert Edwards.
Look away for now from that headline China PMI figure showing a seventh month of manufacturing expansion.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Royal Bank of Scotland completes sale of Global Merchant Services to a consortium of Advent International and Bain Capital – statement.
- Aegis Group announces it is to expand its marketing presence in Russia - statement.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Gideon Rachman: China reaps a vintage European crop
The news earlier this month that three bottles of Château Lafite, from the 1869 vintage,
The OBR index
Today brought the ho-hum news, courtesy of the latest monthly Hometrack house price survey, of a 0.8 per cent decline in house prices in England and Wales. Similarly underwhelming was the Bank of England’s lending data showing that the number of loan approvals was just 47,185,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Analysis: Government bonds – A coinage debased
It was a small decision but the symbolism was huge, write the FT’s David Oakley and Richard Milne.
Bleak house (prices) Vol. II
The latest Land Registry House Price Index was released today, recording a negative month-on-month house price change in October for properties in England and Wales.
The headline number is -0.8 per cent (bringing the average house price to £165,505).
When quantity may not matter
Interesting graph courtesy of Jeffrey Young at Barclays Capital:
That’s the quantity of liquidity to the value of the US dollar — with the two bearing less relation to each other than you may suppose.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: Capitalism can save the planet
Not so long ago governments around the world stepped in to rescue capitalism. It’s time for capitalism to repay the favour by turning its mind to saving the planet.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: The Feds must cast their net widely
The news of Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on US hedge funds in a sweeping investigation into alleged insider trading is welcome,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Ireland refutes the German perspective
If any good can come out of the Irish disaster it is via the realisation that the classic German perspective on the problems of the eurozone is mistaken.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: A paralysed, diminished America
This weekend’s Nato summit in Lisbon concluded a flurry of top-level international meetings that,
Bursting bubbles
What better way to end the week than with a history lesson from Société Générale’s Dylan Grice:
Financial historians have shown that every single financial crisis since the 1870s has been preceded by rampant credit growth.
Mortgage professionals only, please
It’s been a busy week for mortgage news, but not quite one for cheer at the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
Readers might remember that in its latest trends in lending data the BofE said that the value of mortgage lending for house purchases was £5.3bn in October,
Construction wobbles
There’s something about the following graphs from the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors Q3 UK Construction Market Survey that is beginning to give us a worrying sense of déja-vu (click to enlarge):
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- Vedanta Resources details $6bn financing arrangement for Cairn India — statement.
- Nestlé announces changes to sales recognition policy — statement.
- BTG to acquire Biocompatibles for £177m,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- LCH.Clearnet to double margin requirement on Irish bonds — statement.
- Northern Foods and Greencore announce plans to merge — statement.
- Actelion in “regular dialogue”