Evening Reading – December 1, 2010
FT Alphaville: When bunds (and ECB credibility) are risk assets
The European Central Bank might have hinted that it’ll buy up Irish, Greek, Portuguese and perhaps even Spanish bonds, burning shorts aplenty after Tuesday’s horrific core contagion sell-off.
But there are some bonds the ECB won’t be buying. German ones.
FT Alphaville: No, Uncle Sam isn’t bailing Europe out
Either US Treasury officials (or Reuters ledes) are supreme masters of subtlety, or markets are very stupid.
We’re going with the latter.
FT Alphaville: Fed liquidity in 2008 – everyone was doin’ it [updated]
Poor Lehman.
The Federal Reserve has just released details of its Primary Dealer Credit Facility — the programme that allowed the Fed’s official ‘trading partners’ to borrow from the central bank in return for posting collateral. It was created in March 2008 to help ease liquidity after the credit crunch and the collapse of Bear Stearns.
FT Alphaville: A surprise bullish turn
Goldman has updated its forecast for the US, expecting real GDP growth of 2.7 per cent next year and 3.6 per cent in 2012…
FT Alphaville: Beige Book #8: not bad
We’re a gloomy bunch here at FT Alphaville, so the renewed optimism in the US economy is making us nervous — especially since it reminds us of that blissful early spring, just before the effects of Greece and a long stretch of terrible employment reports gave lie to those prematurely triumphant magazine covers.
Calculated Risk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 12.26 million SAAR in November
Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 12.26 million SAAR in November. That is up 13.2% from November 2009, and up slightly from the October 2010 sales rate.
Reuters: CFTC won’t make January position limits deadline: Sommers
The futures regulator will miss a mid-January deadline to finalize its long-awaited plan to limit speculative positions held by commodity traders, an agency official said on Wednesday.