Stock Market / Finance in European Union
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/07/21
There was no surprises from the European Central Bank on Thursday as it left its key interest rates and massive stimulus unchanged for an eleventh straight session, and as well kept the forward guidance intact, thus retaining the downward bias on investment purchases.
The Governing Council, led by ECB President Mario Draghi, kept all its three interest rates unchanged during the policy session in Frankfurt.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/07/21
Though the robust economic expansion provides confidence that euro area inflation will hit the target in next, it is from presently on to show any convincing trend of a pick up, prompting policymakers to delay a review of the massive stimulus until the fall, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Thursday.
"Headline inflation is dampened by the weakness in energy prices," Draghi said in his introductory statement to the post-decision press conference. "Moreover, measures of underlying inflation remain in general at subdued levels."
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/07/15
The European markets ended Friday's session with mixed results. However, the markets ended the in general trading week with a strong gain, thanks in large part to Wednesday's strong rally. Markets jumped mid-week next Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments about gradual policy tightening.
The markets were stuck in a sideways pattern throughout Friday's session and ended the day little changed in general. Markets on Wall Street as well traded nearly flat following the release of a large batch of U.S. economic data and earnings from a trio of major banks.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/07/08
In early June, the failure of the Spanish bank Banco Popular seemed to work smoothly under the new European resolution rules. The relatively new Banking Union seemed to work in achieving its goal to limit moral hazard. Losses were imposed upon junior bondholders and shareholders whereas Spanish taxpayers did not pay a dime. Although there are many defects with the new resolution framework, it seemed to be a step in the right direction. This impression was short lived and died when the Italian government agreed to use €17 billion of taxpayer’s money for two failed banks, Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza, in late June.
Thus, Italian senior bondholders will be protected despite the philosophy of the new bail-in framework according which bondholders shoulder losses if a bank fails. Consequently, the two banks’ senior bond prices rose by more than 15% on Monday.
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NETHERLAND, 2017/07/08
Dutch NGO Somo has been blowing the whistle on the Netherlands’ tax practices since 1973. So far, to little result. The founding member of the European Union was still the world’s third-ranked tax haven in 2016.
“The evidence is piling up,” said Katrin McGauran, clearing a mountain of documents from her desk in an old home just outside the city centre in The Hague. Top of the pile is a document entitled “Fool’s gold”, the case of a gold mine in Greece, run by Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold. “An example to show you the Dutch sandwich,” a lesson in tax optimisation.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/06/20
EUROZONE inflation slowed to a lower than expected 1.4 % in May, as volatile energy prices sapped the intended effects of the European Central Bank’s massive stimulus plan, EU data showed yesterday.
Eurozone unemployment in April kept an encouraging trend, inching lower to 9.3 %, at its lowest rate since March 2009, Eurostat said.
The fall in inflation will provide backing to ECB chief Mario Draghi, who on Monday said the central bank remained “firmly convinced” it must maintain its massive interventions in the eurozone economy to avoid undermining a gathering recovery.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/05/11
Spain’s Basque Country is taking steps to cement links with the UK, the fourth biggest market for its services
While the UK and Brussels wrangle over hard versus soft Brexits and the nature of next trade deals, Spain’s Basque business development agency, SPRI, has quietly opened an office in London, confident that it will be business as usual.
Regardless of whether the UK is in or out of the EU, the Basque Country cannot afford to turn its back on the country that accounted for €1.29bn of its exports in 2016, ranking fourth behind France, Germany and the US.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/05/03
European stocks may open a tad higher on Wednesday amid positive cues from Wall Street and Asia.
As the euphoria from Macron's victory fades, investors are presently waiting to see whether U.S. President Donald Trump will stick with his campaign pledge to slash the corporate tax rate from 35 % to 15 %. The White Home is expected to unveil the outlines of the tax plan later today.
The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, but no changes to investment purchases or interest rates are expected. It will be interesting to hear President Mario Draghi's comments for any shift in tone. The Bank of Japan is as well expected to keep its policy stance intact at the two-day rate review ending on Thursday.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/04/21
Eurozone consumers will be prepared to keep spending at a decent rate despite higher inflation eating into their purchasing power, IHS Markit Economist Howard Archer, said.
Data published by the European Commission on Friday showed that the consumer sentiment index rose to -3.6 in April from -5 in March. A similar high score was last seen in March 2015.
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/04/21
The euro area current account surplus increased to a record high in February, figures from the European Central Bank showed Friday.
The current account surplus surged to a seasonally adjusted EUR 37.9 billion in February from EUR 26.1 billion in January. This was the highest surplus since the formation of the currency bloc.
The surplus on goods trade increased to EUR 29.5 billion from EUR 25.5 billion a month ago. At the same time, the surplus on services additional than doubled to EUR 9.5 billion from EUR 3.7 billion.
