Barclays Partners With 'Dr. Doom' for Global Stock Indexes
July 13, 2015--U.K. banking giant Barclays (UK: BARC) is teaming up with Nouriel Roubini on factor-based stock indexes.
Four Roubini Barclays Country Insights Indices were developed by Roubini Global Economics and Barclays' structured investment strategies group, according to a press release issued on Monday.
Source: Barron's
Flash Boys Welcome: World Exchanges Woo High-Frequency Firms
July 12, 2015--Hey there, flash boy.
Exchanges around the world are avidly wooing high-frequency traders- those controversial speed demons of Wall Street.
Despite the often explosive debate over this kind of trading in the U.S., bourses in Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and beyond are trying to lure HFT types to boost business.
Source: Bloomberg
China's market-tracking ETFs roiled by share suspensions
July 12, 2015--A wave of stock suspensions has played havoc with exchange traded funds tracking Chinese markets, causing wild price swings and big price gaps between passive funds and the assets they track.
More than 1,400 companies-more than half of all listings-are on trading halts in China, in an effort to shield themselves from the dramatic equity market sell-off that has wiped trillions of dollars off the value of Chinese stocks.
Source: FT.com
Beyond Greece, the world is filled with debt crises
Drama in Athens reflects a bigger truth: precarious countries across the globe owe trillions of dollars to lenders and investors who must be repaid
July 11, 2015--With its shuttered banks, furious public protests and iconoclastic politicians, the plight of Greece, brought to its knees by a crippling debt burden, has been gripping and heartbreaking in equal measure: a full-blown sovereign debt crisis on the doorstep of some of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Yet new analysis by the Jubilee Debt Campaign reveals that Greeceās plight is far from unique: more than 20 other countries are also wrestling with their own debt crises.
Source: The Guardian
BRICS Bank To Start Lending In Local Currencies In Q1 2016, President Says
July 10, 2015--The $100 billion New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS bank, which comprises of the members of the BRICS grouping of emerging market nations-Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-will start lending in local currency by April 2016 and its member countries will be the primarily
focus of the bank, K.V. Kamath, the President of the NDB told the Press Trust of India (PTI) on Friday.
Source: emergingequity.org
BlackRock tries to calm redemption fears
July 10, 2015--BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, is pushing back against mounting concern that asset managers are set for severe investor outflows when interest rates eventually begin to rise.
Like many asset managers, BlackRock has ballooned in size by hoovering up corporate bonds as companies have taken advantage of low interest rates to issue large amounts of debt.
Source: FT.com
FSB Sees Progress on Risk-Free Interest-Rate Benchmarks
July 9, 2015--Global regulators are making progress in identifying potential risk-free benchmark rates as they respond to manipulation scandals that have shaken the financial industry, the Financial Stability Board said.
"Detailed data collection exercises have been undertaken in key markets and work is now underway to identify potential" risk-free benchmark rates where these don't exist, the Basel-based FSB said in a report on Thursday."
Source: Bloomberg
IMF Slower Growth in Emerging Markets, a Gradual Pickup in Advanced Economies WEO Update
July 9, 2015--Global growth is projected at 3.3 percent in 2015, marginally lower than in 2014, with a gradual pickup in advanced economies and a slowdown in emerging market and developing economies.
In 2016, growth is expected to strengthen to 3.8 percent. A setback to activity in the first quarter of 2015, mostly in North America, has resulted in a small downward revision to global growth for 2015 relative to the April 2015 World Economic Outlook (WEO).
Nevertheless, the underlying drivers for a gradual acceleration in economic activity in advanced economies-easy financial conditions, more neutral fiscal policy in the euro area, lower fuel prices, and improving confidence and labor market conditions-remain intact.
In emerging market economies, the continued growth slowdown reflects several factors, including lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions, structural bottlenecks, rebalancing in China, and economic distress related to geopolitical factors. A rebound in activity in a number of distressed economies is expected to result in a pickup in growth in 2016.
view the lower Growth in Emerging Markets, a Gradual Pickup in Advanced Economies - Infographic
Source: IMF
CPMI and IOSCO begin first "Level 3" PFMI Principles assessment
July 9, 2015--The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) announced today that they have started the first Level 3 assessment of the implementation of the Principles for financial market infrastructures (PFMI), the international standards for financial market infrastructures (FMIs).
This review will examine consistency in the outcomes of PFMI Principles implementation and is part of the CPMI-IOSCO's monitoring of full, timely and consistent implementation of the PFMI.
Source: IOSCO
Yen fuelled by China spillover fears
July 9, 2015--Speculative money likely to play a decisive role as carry trade unwinds.
Source: FT.com