EUROPE
Where are the real
fault lines in the EU? – Open
Europe
Ipsos Mori has this week published an interesting poll on public
attitudes* in ten EU member states. Across the ten countries as a whole
relatively few people want to leave the EU outright (18% on average), but the
single most popular option is staying in the EU but reducing its powers (34%).
Daniele Nouy's comments, including her plea for countries to form a
united front in solving the problem, give an early indication of how the bloc's
chief banking supervisor intends to tackle issues that show up in health checks
this year.
Bankers fear leaks
from ECB health check – Reuters
Bankers are worried that sensitive information will leak out before the
official publication of the bloc's review of bank balance sheets, triggering
speculation and making investors uneasy.
UKRAINE / RUSSIA
The Post-Russian World Order – Project
Syndicate
UNITED STATES
A new direction at
the Yellen Fed? – Humble
Student
Stanley Fischer, the not yet confirmed nominee to be Fed vice-chair,
former head of Israel's central bank and former thesis advisor to Ben Bernanke
and Mario Draghi, voicing an opinion about potential Fed policy: “we should
never again be in a situation in which the public sector has to inject public
money into failing financial institutions in order to mitigate a financial
crisis”
For the FOMC, see my Special
ASIA
George Magnus: Country’s economic change will have deflationary
consequences. Investors have a lot to worry about without cause to fret about China, but now they have
that too. Trend growth is slowing down, and markets have been shaken up by the
actions of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), which is trying to tame a
virulent credit boom.
OTHER
Corporate bonds have been trading stronger this week, in spite of the
unresolved political crisis in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile,
interesting news from the Federal Reserve is expected tonight.
Things That Make You
Go Hmmm... – Grant
Williams via ZH
Morgan Stanley's
Latest Forecast For Every Major Economy – BI
Citi On International
Finance As War By Any Other Means – ZH
Saxo FX carry trade
portfolios: Euro and Swiss franc fight back – TradingFloor
Strong showings by the euro and Swiss franc were enough to condemn the USD-denominated
World Carry portfolio to another bi-weekly loss of 0.6 percent. There are no
changes to any of the four reference portfolios.
Fund Managers'
Current Asset Allocation – March – The
Fat Pitch
What has been particularly remarkable is how long managers have been
highly overweight equities (virtually all of 2013 and so far in 2014). This is
longer than any period during the 2003-07 bull market (yellow shading). In
September, exposure to global equities was the second highest since the survey
began in 2001.
Junk Bonds at $2
Trillion as Gundlach Pulls Back: Credit Markets – BB
Copper Plunges To
Fresh 5-Year Low – ZH
FINNISH
Iiro Viinasen lamavuosien päiväkirjat julki – Verkkouutiset
Yle: Haglund tukisi Espanjaa, Sipilä ei – Verkkouutiset
Japanin ”valuuttasodan” tulos – Roger Wessman
Troikan tilinteko – Sampo
Terho