RSS feedmexico
’Does Carlos Slim really ❤ silver?
Here’s some juicy stock market RAW to kick off 2011 — Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man is looking to enter the silver market in a big way.
And that big way, according to KingWorldNews, is a bid for Fresnillo,
The LATAM contagion effect
All eyes were on Spanish bond yields AGAIN on Wednesday. Especially as news emerged that the country was freezing, due to market volatility, the start of its €13.5bn issue programme set to sell state-guaranteed power revenue bonds.
Goldman and those 50-year bonds
In another display of nifty tentacle work, Goldman Sachs on Tuesday sold $1.3bn in 50-year bonds to retail investors — vastly beyond its original plans to sell just $250m worth.
While investors were (quite naturally) drawn to prospects for high,
Banking bubble (charts)
Warning: this post contains a bubble chart.
Citi’s European banks research team has come up with a fresh take on earnings and valuation bubbles across major markets.
Analysts led by Ronit Ghose compared the market value of banks to the size of the economies in which they are based – a measure dubbed ”penetration”.
VaR and piñata pensions reform
Here’s something you may have missed down Mexico way.
From the Wall Street Journal:
[Mexico's pensions regulator] Consar also approved modifications to the [Mexican pension funds} Afores’ risk control methodology in order to avoid forced asset sales during periods of extreme market volatility in order to comply with value-at-risk limits.
US problems still flowing down Mexico’s way
The slide in Mexico’s remittances has, according to BNP Paribas, showed few signs of abating.
In fact, the analysts say it could be accelerating:
As BNP Paribas pointed out in their Mexican note this week:
Mexico’s new ‘C’ for commodity banker
Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens — the man who netted Mexico a profit of more than $5bn by shrewdly hedging 2009 oil output at $70 per barrel — has been nominated by Mexico’s president Felipe Calderón on Wednesday to head the country’s central bank,
Mexico hedges against falling oil prices
Mexico has taken out a $1bn insurance policy against oil prices falling next year, in the latest sign that commodities producers are concerned about the threat of a double-dip recession. The world’s sixth largest oil producer said on Tuesday it had hedged all its net oil exports for 2010,
Fitch downgrades Mexico
One point to JP Morgan, which predicted not a week ago that Fitch was likely to cut Mexico’s credit rating. On Monday, the rating agency did just that, lowering the country’s foreign currency issuer default rating by one notch to BBB.
Battle of the Banamex
Here’s the latest development in the peculiar saga that is the ongoing tussle over Citi’s Mexican subsidiary, Banamex.
From the FT:
Mexico’s Supreme Court is this week set to probe a case that could potentially force Citigroup,
Mexican oil bet reaps $8bn windfall
Mexico is set to earn a record $8bn from financial contracts it bought last summer as insurance against weaker energy demand and lower oil prices this year, the FT has learnt. The oil producer’s astute risk management will make it the envy of Opec,
The SDR effect on the dollar, and gold
Here’s a small sample of what the world’s central banks are doing with their newly inflated SDR reserves.
Mexico, via Bloomberg:
The $4 billion in special drawing rights Mexico is getting from the International Monetary Fund is providing the central bank more room to continue selling dollars while reaching its goal of ending this year with international reserves around last year’s levels,
Emerging market consumers not persuaded by plastic
Plastic in the form of credit cards, that is.
The Business Standard reported on Tuesday that in India, “the annual growth in credit card balances has fallen to an all-time low”:
According to the Reserve bank of India (RBI) data,
The trouble with doorstep lending in emerging markets
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But was there a bigger accident waiting to happen on the UK stock market than International Personal Finance?
For readers not familiar with the FTSE 250 company it is a doorstep lender with a twist:
Political fat tails
Probability distributions didn’t do a great job predicting financial meltdown, and we’re not sure they’ll be much better at predicting general events. But, since it’s not far-fetched to think that political extremes can follow economic ones,
Mexic-oh no
The outbreak of swine flu couldn’t have come at a worse time for Mexico, really.
The government has been struggling to revive the country’s economy, trying to reduce interest rates while fighting inflation and a weakening local currency.
Citi, Banamex and the peso
Citi’s Banamex saga has taken a rather ludicrous turn:
MEXICO CITY, March 19 (Reuters) – Mexico said on Thursday that foreign governments can own stakes in its banks given the crisis in global financial markets,
A Mexican US-fallout wave
Troubles in Mexcio are brewing. Rogelio Ramirez de la O, the economist Bloomberg cites as having predicted the 1994 peso devaluation, says the national currency will weaken another 16 per cent by year-end as the nation’s twin deficits swell.
Citi Mexicana
Does the US government’s 36 per cent stake in Citi violate Mexican ownership laws? Have we got our countries confused? No.
Citi owns Banamex, a Mexican bank with circa 1,200 branches and 2.6m checking accounts.
Emerging (markets) squeeze
Speaking of emerging market economies in the 1990s, we may be having a repeat.
This is from Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management.
Public sector surpluses