Hello Eoin, In today's Financial Times it is stated that the IMF is concerned about the risks of debt defaults by emerging market companies and states. How does this bring into question the flow of stock market investments in these countries in recent months?
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
There’s a stampede in the European bond market to buy high-quality notes paying hefty yields.
Investors have bid a total of €1 trillion ($1.08 trillion) on corporate and sovereign debt this month, fueling a ferocious comeback in markets battered by last year’s selloff. The intensity of demand is so high that the average order book is more than three times the size of what’s available to buy.
That’s the second-highest ratio for any January of the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and shows that investors are acting fast and early to fill their portfolios, especially with investment-grade debt.
“Investors are taking on risk and there is good appetite,” said Stephanie Besse, global head of debt capital markets for corporates at Natixis CIB. “We have seen strong demand at the long end of the curve, which is a sign of trust in credit markets.”
As always thanks for your excellent service. I appreciate your comments on Volkswagon today, and am considering buying some, as I don't see how the German government would let VW go under. Can you also please comment on Credit Suisse. Do you think there is a serious risk that Credit Suisse will not survive. Thanks in advance.
This article from Reuters may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
GM would supplant China's Ganfeng Lithium(002460.SZ) to become Lithium Americas' largest shareholder. GM has also agreed to buy all the lithium from Thacker Pass when it opens in 2026 - roughly 40,000 tonnes per year.
Under the agreement, GM will buy $650 million of shares in Lithium Americas in two equal parts, with the first tranche coming only if Lithium Americas prevails in an ongoing court case. A U.S. judge earlier this month said she would rule "in the next couple of months" in the case, which centers on whether former U.S. President Donald Trump erred when he approved the mine just before leaving office in 2021.
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
There has been no suggestion that the Adani entities would struggle to make these payments, and Adani has flagged interest coverage ratios that show it has the wherewithal to meet such obligations.
But Hindenburg’s report last week alleging “accounting fraud” along with its short position in Adani’s US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivatives has put the debt in the spotlight. Some of the notes have fallen to distressed levels below 70 cents on the dollar that generally show mounting concern about creditworthiness. The securities extended declines Monday after a rebuttal by the Indian conglomerate and as Hindenburg followed with its own response.
In a recent article, Joseph Stiglitz argues that the current inflation is primarily due to the supply-side shock of the Covid crisis and to shifts in the demand patterns. His view is that the rate of inflation has already peaked - it is 1% higher now than in June 2022. He claims that the rise in interest rates has been largely passed on to consumers via higher prices and that any future interest rate rises would be inflationary.
This article from the Washington Post may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
The steel industry is working on solutions. According to the Leadership Group for Industry Transition, at least 73 green steel projects are in progress. But the researchers say the technology just isn't there yet.
"These technologies still face serious technical, economic, and social challenges, and have yet to be implemented at scale," said Takuma Watari, a researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan and the paper's first author, in a news release. It's still unclear whether enough electricity will be available in the future to power these innovations, he said.
Better processes for recycling steel scraps into high-quality materials are needed, the researchers write. They call for partnerships between the steel industry and users in a variety of sectors. But the current system "is incompatible with a zero-emission future," they write.
