It's EU Judgment Day: Key Events Plus Essential And Unavoidable Short And Long Term Solutions

Cliff Wachtel submits: Like other emerging market nations, it has entered a vicious cycle in which market skepticism creates higher borrowing costs and actually pushes the country closer to the abyss, its demise becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

Brian Dolan submits:The Week Ahead: May 2-7, 2010 Event risk to dominate markets next week Risk sentiment may falter further GBP outlook depends on new government tackling the deficit Greek woes will persist well past the weekend Key data and events to watch next week Event risk to dominate markets next week The month of May looks se

Lower-rated bonds led performance within the bond market during the first quarter of 2013, continuing a theme from 2012. The combination of higher yields and good fundamentals led to price gains among lower-rated bond sectors such as high-yield bonds, preferred stocks, and bank loans. Gains among lower-rated bonds contrasted with price declines and modest losses on high-quality bonds [Figure 1].

EU officials have hatched a plan to make banks and bondholders take losses for risks, not now of course, but after 2013. In the meantime, taxpayers will shoulder 100% of the losses for bank lending stupidity. On this confidence inspiring news, European bonds rallied sharply. Bloomberg reports EU Bank Writedown to Exclude Pre-’13 Debt

There was little in terms of overnight newsflow to spook algos, but the tone is decidedly sour this morning following a lack of either the now traditional Japan or Europen-open buying ramps. The primary reason for this may well be the ongoing decline in the USDJPY which failed to breach the 100 barrier yesterday, coming as close as 99.95 before the Mrs.

It’s a measure of the mishandling that this drop of an economy, just 1.1m people and 0.2pc of eurozone GDP, has been able to trigger such a tsunami, reports The Telegraph.

It’s been four years since the European sovereign debt crisis broke out, yet troubles on the continent continue to hover like a dark cloud over markets. The Financial Post sat down with Jens Larsen, chief European economist and managing director for RBC Capital Markets, to talk about what’s in store for Europe this year. Q  We saw a successful Spanish bond auction on Thursday, and 10-year yields slipped below 5%. Are investors gaining more confidence in Spain and Italy?

TODAY, Treasury reached its debt ceiling and began emergency manoeuvres to gain a few months before running out of borrowing room. Most everyone agrees that failure to raise the debt ceiling before that happens would be a calamity.