When did we “accept” 7.5 percent growth out of China?
What happened to those perfect 9 percent growth charts from China? By Bloomberg Business week.
For years, there’s been one constant for people talking about the Chinese economy: GDP growth would exceed 8 percent. It didn’t much matter what happened in the rest of the world: The U.S. and other export markets might be thriving or might be struggling but China would grow by at least 8 percent, year in and year out. The country needed to create enough jobs for the millions of young people entering the workforce every year, and the Chinese leadership decided that anything below 8 percent would put job creation in jeopardy. And the policymakers were consistent: The last time China had a growth target below 8 percent, George W. Bush was still in his first term and the Boston Red Sox still hadn’t broken the Bambino’s curse. (Full reading here).
Spain’s budget figures
We are getting that deja vú feeling again. Spain has suddenly been spending 90 billion Euros more than estimated. How they calculate these figures, nobody knows, but this sure is resembling the Greek saga. 90 Billion Euros is the size of the Portugese bail out by the way.
On the other hand, when it comes to the property sector, we would really enjoy trying to understand the explanations on out how the banks are valuing all those “cheap” properties they hold in their prop book. Expect cheap properties to become cheaper, while the budget blame game resumes.
Tsar Putin
So Putin is officially back. Some words by Putin from last year.
From Reuters; “They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy,” Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi while touring its lakeside summer camp some five hours drive north of Moscow.
“They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar,” Putin said at the open-air meeting with admiring young Russians in what looked like early campaigning before parliamentary and presidential polls.
“If over there (in America) there is a systemic malfunction, this will affect everyone,” Putin told the young Russians.
“Countries like Russia and China hold a significant part of their reserves in American securities … There should be other reserve currencies.”
Queen of Commodities strikes again
The Queen of Commodities goes even more powerful. Via the Independent.
Blythe Masters, the British woman who runs JPMorgan’s commodities division, has steered the department to record turnover exceeding $2.8bn (£1.8bn) in 2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Reuters research shows that Cambridge-educated Ms Masters beat her arch-rival, Isabelle Ealet at Goldman Sachs in London, whose commodities division’s revenues stagnated at $1.6bn. JPMorgan’s performance, a threefold leap in revenues, is a huge bounceback for one of the most powerful women on Wall Street. (Full article here). Video below.
I am not Sure Why This Time Should be Different
Guest post by The Technical Take;
I am not sure why this time should be different. Seriously. Yes, I have read all of the internet want to be commentators that claim all market analysis is useless especially in this environment where the central banks of the world have flooded the markets with liquidity. Stocks just cannot go down and suggesting that they might is well blasphemy. But I think the data does matter and it will matter. At some point, there will be a tipping point. Are we close to that event? We are closer than we were 4 weeks ago as different data sets are consistent with price fatigue.
So let’s start with investor sentiment. As we know, the “dumb money” indicator shows too many bulls. See figure 1. While most would interpret this as a bear signal, I have repeatedly stated that “it does take bulls to make a bull market”. So I am comfortable with the notion of too many bulls. We should expect to see this indicator at a bullish extreme.
News That Matters
Ft.com
Last year was the first year in decades that no new bank was created in the United States, the FT reports. Three ‘new’ banks were created from the takeover of failed lenders, but no so-called ‘de novo’, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2012/03/05/908261/no-new-us-banks-created-in-2011/
Banks including Barclays, Lloyds and Credit Agricole will use funds they borrowed from the ECB’s three-year liquidity operation to prop up subsidiaries in the economies of the eurozone periphery, the WSJ reports. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2012/03/05/908201/banks-funnel-ltro-cash-to-peripheral-subsidiaries/
Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in Russia’s presidential elections, although the opposition has denounced the fairness of the vote and vowed to continue protests, reports the FT. ”We have won in an open and fair fight,” http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2012/03/05/908161/glory-to-russia-weeps-victor-putin/
Tesco is set to announce that it will create 20,000 jobs in the UK in the next two years, equal to seven per cent of its current British workforce, the WSJ reports. Plans to open new stores and upgrade existing ones in Britain account for the hiring increase. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2012/03/05/908131/tesco-to-add-20000-uk-jobs/
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