Mind The Gap

The days of European taxpayers footing the bill for bank rescues could soon be over. Overnight, officials in Strasbourg, representing the European Parliament and EU member states, agreed new rules for future bank rescues. Under the “bank resolution and recovery directive” created in Strasbourg, bond holders and large depositors will now be in the firing […]

US budget negotiators late Tuesday night reached a deal to set spending levels until 2015, avoiding the latest debt ceiling deadlock in Congress. The agreement may herald the return of an era in which Congress can perform basic functions without the political rows that have threatened the US economic recovery in recent years. However, the

There was yet more promising data printed from the UK this morning with regards to the economic recovery of the country and unlike the data from sources such as Markit’s sentiment indices, this is as close to ‘fact’ as the UK can deliver. Despite the trade balance for the month remaining down at circa £9.7bn,

According to the latest COT report currency speculators are still bearish yen, a position reflected in yen falling versus the majority of its major pairs in the overnight trading session. In early news Germany’s trade balance was published, as expected it revealed a significant increase, with Germany exporting goods to the value of €99.1 billion

Most traders’ eyes will turn to the USA jobs number this afternoon. Given that the other jobs metrics this week have come in very positive the number does have to opportunity to surprise, particularly as the economists polled will have been asked for their predictions and opinions prior to this week’s impressive numbers from ADP,

Equity markets were weaker across the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe on Thursday. Investors are cautious ahead of interest rate decisions in the Eurozone and the UK on Thursday plus the highly-anticipated monthly NFP US jobs report due out Friday. The losses follow a 0.1 per cent pullback in the S&P 500 Wednesday, after a

The UK service sector maintained its recent run of strong growth during November as incoming new business continued to rise at a rapid pace. Capacity remained under pressure and companies took on extra staff to help service rising workloads. There were also signs of price pressures beginning to build. Input cost inflation hit a nine-month

News that Spain’s unemployment has fallen slightly will have come as a temporary relief to the Spanish government, however, with circa 57% youth unemployment in Spain and this figure mirrored in the PIIGS, you have to wonder at the lifetime opportunities many in the ravaged recession/austerity hit countries will experience. All of the PIIGS have

There has been a raft of PMIs printed this morning beginning with the HSBC sponsored Markit Economic data which held at its expansion level of 51.4. The EZ modest recovery looks to be continuing with the manufacturing PMI up a few ticks from October’s reading. Spain and France didn’t fair too we’ll with Spain’s manufacturing

It’s been some time since we’ve started this column with reference to rating agencies downgrading a nation’s credit worthiness, S&P have downgraded one of Europe’s largest economies this morning and immediately the microphones were metaphorically placed under the nose of the Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem to ask his reaction… This is the member of