- Moody's is moody about Hong Kong
Moody's seems to retaliate at HK after allowing the extradition of Snowden. Moody's revised their outlook of the Hong Kong banking system to Outlook - Negative!
Their concerns:
- HK 'Property Bubbles' - irony :)
- Persistent negative real interest rates
- Growing exposures to China (rumours have it!)
'Why shouldn't I work for the NSA?' (from Goodwill Hunting): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
US's ridiculous foreign policy, 'warns countries against Snowden travel': http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/23/us-usa-security-flight-idUSBRE95M02H20130623
- Govt Bond Yields in US, Europe and Japan
US and European bond yields have seen a rather sizeable rise. Since the start of the year, yield increases have seen a sustained increase, but in the last 6 weeks Japanese bond yields have settled, whilst US and T bills and the Germany Bund yield continue to increase.
Read www.marctomarket.com/2013/06/great=graphic-10-year-yields-in-us.html; www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-24/meanwhile-10year
- China crashing
Shanghai Composite - slipping -> crashing. Today reported the biggest intraday slide since August 2009, and dropped below 2,000 for the first time since September!
- China crashing... still.. oh wait.. maybe not
Stocks at lowest levels since 2009. Down 20% from February highs. Shanghai Composite down 8.9% in 2 days, biggest 2 day drop in 4 years.
Change! Rebounded - cutting losses by more than half after rumours that there will bea PBOC Press conference later today!
Change! PBOC says financial markets are stable this year, that liquidity is constrained only by seasonal factors and that liquidity is still ample! 5.8% drop erased to 0.2%. SHCOMP @ 1960 at time of writing.
- Berlusconi convicted!
'Silvio Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire trial; sentenced to 7 years and barred from office'. Published no more than 5 minutes ago: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/silvio-berlusconi-convicted-in-sex-for-hire-trial-sentenced-to-7-years-and-barred-from-office/2013/06/24/afe9cb9c-dce2-11e2-a484-7b7f79cd66a1_story.html
Impact on Italian Politics unclear for the time being. With regards to MediaSet, the mass media company he founded (and owns 39% of) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediaset, caution: please don't blindly trust wikipedia 100%) - 5.2% down today.
- Interesting reads:
'Market Power, Minimum Wages, and the Sins of Friedmania' angrybearblog.com/2013/06/market-power-minimum-wages-and-the-sins-of-friedmania.html
'HFM Advertising or How to Take the Management Out of Risk Management' nihoncassandra.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/hfm-advertising-or-how-to-take.html
