financial news

The global growth slowdown began in the second half of 2011. I flagged it as a trend last May. When I updated my view in December, my concerns were Europe, China, India and Australia. And this is still the case.

The news from Spain's statistical agency INE is that the Spanish economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter of 2011. Spain thus joins ten other Western European economies in recession. None of this should come as a surprise. Given the policy…

The GDP numbers for the US came out again and they were weaker than anticipated, coming in at 2.2% for real GDP growth instead of the 2.5% expected. Nominal GDP growth was only 3.7%. That is not bullish for shares.

As I write this the lower house of Dutch Parliament is debating what and where to cut in order to get their budget under the 3% hurdle as quickly as possible.

The big US data today was in the housing markets as we got both the Case-Shiller and the housing starts numbers. Here's my take on the news.

I have been saying that I expect German data to disappoint and come in on the softer side. Why? This post explains.

Today's big news was the bond auction in Spain. Spain's auction went off without a hitch but at a cost. Spain sold 2.5 bln euros ($3.3 billion USD). The Spanish Treasury sold a 1.1 bln euro bond maturing 31 Oct 2014 (average yield: 3.463%,…

Most of the focus these days is on Spain and the periphery - and for good reason. Spain's bond yields are putting it into a potential debt death spiral from which the only escapes are a bailout or default. Moreover, the whole of the…

Spain is involved in two stories today that point to the difficulties that surround sovereign governments that are overindebted in foreign currency. There are a ton of Spanish-language links for that reason.

I am increasingly worried about what is happening in Spain. It seems that the crisis there is hitting a flashpoint with no obvious means of turning things around. Over the past few days, I have been reading and listening to Spanish media…