still with that eh?
No ECB, No Problem: Record Demand For Spanish, Italian And Portuguese Debt Offerings
After a brief hiatus in bond land driven by sharp stock market volatility, which saw a 40-day stretch without a single junk bond price in the primary market and a move wider in peripheral bonds, credit investors are again feeling the FOMO squeeze and expressed it vividly this morning in the form of record demand for sovereign bond offerings from Spain, following a similar scramble for debt sold by Spain and Portugal.
According to Bloomberg, sovereign bond offerings from Italy, Spain and Portugal in January have drawn "unprecedented" bid-side demand, for a total of €106 billion euros ($120 billion), up 14 percent from a year ago, helping a slide in peripheral euro-area yields in the past two weeks even as the ECB's QE quietly fades away.
Spain saw the most demand by far, its offering nearly 5x oversubscribed, when it received €46.5BN in orders for €10BN, 10-year bond on Tuesday, following successful sales by Italy and Portugal earlier this month. The culprit behind the surge in demand: mostly Japanese pension funds and Mrs. Watanabe, as a breakdown of demand for Spain’s syndication showed Asian investors at 11.8%, up from 0.7% for the same offering in January 2018.
With investors once again scrambling to buy European paper, even with the ECB no longer officially in the picture except for reinvestments of maturing bonds, Spanish yields have fallen 17bps in the past two weeks, while Italian yields are down 21 bps alongside a broader surge in risk. Greece could also offer a medium-term bond soon, Danske Bank suggested.
As Bloomberg notes, the sales mark another step in the recovery for a region that saw sentiment weighed down by the risks of a deficit blow-out from Italy’s populist government. While rating companies downgraded Italy last year, Portugal was raised from junk status and Spain was upgraded. Now the nations are starting to benefit as investors are drawn to their relatively high yields.
“Volatility in Italy left tons of pent-up demand,” said Jaime Costero, a rates strategist at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA in Madrid. There is also greater structural demand as the rating upgrades have drawn “new investors and wider credit lines,” he said.
Market sentiment has improved materially after Italy resolved a dispute with the European Union over its 2019 budget deficit, while weaker regional economic data spurred fears of a slowdown that may lead the European Central Bank to be more cautious about removing stimulus.
“There has been a widespread belief among investors that rates will likely remain low for longer, with central banks likely to be very cautious in pushing rates higher,” said SocGen strategist Jorge Garayo, quoted by Bloomberg. "Low volatility combined with a low level of rates has led investors to overweight periphery, more so with more market-friendly political posturing."
Of course, it will likely be a different story should the recent return in market jitters spread, once again hitting the high-beta peripheral bond sector. For now, however, both Spain and Italy are delighted that even without the ECB's backstop investors just can't get enough of funding their deficit.
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this is an impact of the yuan print-fest one week ago. Where else could it come from?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-23/no-ecb-no-problem-record-demand-spanish-italian-and-portuguese-debt-offerings
beautiful place but crowded
Former Barclays execs lied about payments to Qatar, court told
Four former senior Barclays (BARC.L) executives were on Wednesday accused in court of lying to investors about the true nature of an emergency fundraising at the height of the financial crisis.
John Varley, who was CEO of Barclays between 2004 and 2011, Roger Jenkins, who formerly ran Barclays Capital’s investment management business in the Middle East and North Africa, Thomas Kalaris, the former CEO of Barclays’ Wealth Management, and Richard Boath, the former head of European financial institutions group at Barclays Capital, all stand accused of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Varley and Jenkins face two counts and Kalaris and Boath face one.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Qatar has not been accused of wrongdoing.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) alleges that the four mislead Barclays’ shareholders and the wider market by disguising the amount paid to Qatar when it invested in Barclays at the height of the banking crisis in 2008.
In the dock on Wednesday, Jenkins appeared in a black roll neck jumper and blue jacket. Varley wore a white shirt and grey jumper. Kalaris wore a black suit and Boath wore a blue suit.
The case is the first criminal trial of senior banking executives concerning actions taken during the 2008 crash. Such is the level of interest that the courtroom was standing room only and some people were asked to leave due to overcrowding as the first day of the trial got underway in Court 1 of Southwark Crown Court in London.
‘Smokescreen’
The trial centres around what the bank disclosed in its public statements in 2008 — the prospectuses for the capital raisings and subscription agreement documents published June and October that year. Those prospectuses outlined fees and commissions paid to investors in return for backing the bank.
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and a company connected to the Middle Eastern country’s ruling family invested £4.4bn ($5.7bn) in Barclays across two capital raises in 2008, as part of a total of £11.8bn raised by the bank. In return, the Qataris were paid £322m in fees, equivalent to 3.25% of their investment.
This was over double the commission paid to other shareholders who invested, Edward Brown QC, the lawyer for the SFO, told the jury on Wednesday.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/yahoo-finance-live-jan-23-133307067.html
sounds like a great time!
that is the way to do it. Get out of the touristy places and it's a different world.
went day after thanksgiving..pepe visited POTUS hotel in Waikiki
Pic is Nov 26th at W-bay. 50 ft BARRELS in the afternoon. Sunset/Pipe all blown out. Actually parked in the lot I was shocked places available.
That did not last long. Oil/Equity two-step