New crypto millions pumped into market signal renewed trust in Bitcoin
June 26, 2018--When Bitcoin fell below the $6,000 range last Friday, it sparked a minor panic for about 15 minutes total.
That's how long it took for it to bounce back and its price to regain some $300.
Market movers are not hiding their intentions to bring the crypto back to higher peaks, despite the naysayers and regardless of the dangers.
Source: AME Info
Advisers still think ESG strategies underperform
June 25, 2018--Concerns about such investments' performance persist despite mounting evidence to the contrary
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, performance worries still keep advisers from implementing investment strategies that take into account environmental, social and governance concerns.
Source: investmentnews.com
IBOR Global Benchmark Transition Report-IBOR Global Benchmark Transition Report
June 25, 2018--Interbank offered rates (IBORs) play a central role in financial markets, and act as reference rates to hundreds of trillions of dollars in notional amount of derivatives and trillions of dollars in bonds, loans, securitizations and deposits. The dependence on IBORs by all sectors of the financial markets is changing, however.
There are now real concerns about the sustainability of certain IBORs due to a significant decline in activity in the unsecured bank funding market that they are supposed to represent. Given the limited number of actual transactions, and with banks reluctant to provide submissions based on judgement, the viability of certain IBORs is now in doubt.
view the IBOR Global Benchmark Transition Report
Source: ISDA
Bassanese Bites-ASX Breakout!
June 25, 2018--Week in Review
It was a down week for global equities in general, thanks in large part to US President Trump's threats to impose even more tariffs on Chinese and European imports. So far at least, however, what's apparent is that countries are not bowing to Trump's threats.
That said, markets are still assuming (with some reason in my view) that some form of negotiated settlement will eventually be reached, or that at least escalation won't continue much longer.
Indeed, as we've seen with his overturning of the forced separation of children from their asylum seeking parents at the Mexican border (a ploy which failed to get Democrats to agree on a bill to fund the Mexican Wall), Trump has the capacity to back down if he senses it's a losing fight.
Source: BetaShares
ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis-OPEC injects volatility into oil markets
June 25, 2018--OPEC announcement drove prices higher, but we believe this is the beginning of a very volatile period for oil.
Silver sees outflows of US$107mn last week, the largest since September 2017.
Trade war jitters send industrial metal ETP demand lower.
Oil prices rally close to 6 per cent intraday on Friday after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC's) lack of transparency sent markets wondering about what levels of production increases will they will see this year from the group.
Source: ETF Securities
Seize the day to secure sustained growth, BIS says
June 24, 2018--Policymakers can maintain the current economic upswing beyond the short term by tackling structural reforms, rebuilding monetary and fiscal policy space to react to future threats and encouraging prompt implementation of regulatory reforms, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) writes in its Annual Economic Report.
In its flagship economic report, the BIS describes how the global economy is coming off a vintage year for growth with low inflation-unusual so late in the expansion. The gains are in no small measure the fruit of a decade of extraordinary monetary policies, but these have also contributed to vulnerabilities. Although the path to sustainable growth underpinned by price and financial stability is quite narrow, the right policy mix can help fend off material risks to the outlook.
Source: BIS
DECPG Global Weekly
June 22, 2018--TAKING STOCK
U.S. composite PMI eased in June; housing starts rose sharply in May
Euro Area composite PMI rebounded in June; consumer confidence fell
Trade disputes escalated
Japan posted first trade deficit in 3 months in May
EMDE currencies and stock markets weakened
U.S. composite PMI eased in June; housing starts rose sharply in May. The preliminary reading of the composite purchasing mangers' index (PMI) for the United States came in at 56 in June, down from a 3-year high of 56.6 in May (a reading above 50 signals expansion).
Euro Area composite PMI rebounded in June; consumer confidence fell. The Euro Area's flash PMI for June came in at 54.8, above market expectations and up from 54.1 in May. The services PMI rose to 55 in June from 53.8 in May whereas the manufacturing PMI slowed to 55 from 55.5 in May.
Source: World Bank
Estimating Cyber Risk for the Financial Sector
June 22, 2018--Cyber risk has emerged as a significant threat to the financial system. An IMF staff modeling exercise estimates that average annual losses to financial institutions from cyber-attacks could reach a few hundred billion dollars a year, eroding bank profits and potentially threatening financial stability.
Recent cases show that the threat is real. Successful attacks have already resulted in data breaches in which thieves gained access to confidential information, and fraud, such as the theft of $500 million from the Coincheck cryptocurrency exchange. And there is the threat that a targeted institution could be left unable to operate.
Not surprisingly, surveys consistently show that risk managers and other executives at financial institutions worry most about cyber-attacks...
Source: IMF
IMF Working Papers-Cyber Risk for the Financial Sector: A Framework for Quantitative Assessment
June 22, 2018--Summary:
Cyber risk has emerged as a key threat to financial stability, following recent attacks on financial institutions. This paper presents a novel documentation of cyber risk around the world for financial institutions by analyzing the different types of cyber incidents (data breaches, fraud and business disruption) and identifying patterns using a variety of datasets.
The other novel contribution that is outlined is a quantitative framework to assess cyber risk for the financial sector. The framework draws on a standard VaR type framework used to assess various types of stability risk and can be easily applied at the individual country level. The framework is applied in this paper to the available cross-country data and yields illustrative aggregated losses for the financial sector in the sample across a variety of scenarios ranging from 10 to 30 percent of net income.
Source: IMF
IMF Working Papers-The Globalization of Farmland: Theory and Empirical Evidence
June 22, 2018--Summary:
This paper is the first to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence of farmland globalization whereby international investors directly acquire large tracts of agricultural land in other countries.
A theoretical framework explains the geography of farmland acquisitions as a function of cross-country differences in technology, endowments, trade costs, and land governance. An empirical test of the model using global data on transnational deals shows that international farmland investments are on the aggregate likely motivated by re-exports to investor countries rather than to world markets. This contrasts with traditional foreign direct investment patterns where horizontal as opposed to vertical FDI dominates.
view the IMF Working Papers-The Globalization of Farmland: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Source: IMF