Emerging-Market Distressed Debt Loss Is Worst
Since 2008 - (www.bloomberg.com) Emerging-market
distressed debt losses are the worst this month since the global financial
crisis. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Distressed Emerging
Markets
Corporate Plus Index fell 13.4 percent through Dec. 26, set for its worst
performance since October 2008, as a tumble in the price of oil sparked a
currency crisis in Russia. That brought this year’s decline to 19.7
percent, the most in six years. High-yield distressed securities in the U.S.
lost 8 percent, the indexes show. Emerging markets accounted for 14 of the 56
global defaults this year in Standard & Poor’s coverage. Crude reached the
lowest in five years earlier this month and is heading for its largest annual
decline since 2008 as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries resist production cuts to defend market share. A supply glut has also
pushed metal and coal prices deeper into a bear market. “With many moving parts to the equation,
could there be a point where investors begin to interpret the circumstances as
contagion?” said David Tawil, co-founder of New York-based Maglan Capital LP.
“What happens if we need to addVenezuela and Russia to the mix? Contagion is good
for no one.”
Snap
Election Risks Greek Lifeline; Nation's Stocks and Bonds Plunge on Government
Defeat - (www.bloomberg.com) Stocks and bonds plunged in Athens after the government defeat, recalling
the height of the Greek financial crisis in 2012, with investors concerned a
victory by the opposition Syriza party would jeopardize the terms of Greece’s
rescue struck with international creditors. Syriza, which opposes austerity
measures imposed in return for the outside aid, leads Samaras’s New Democracy
movement in opinion polls. “These elections will be a struggle between fear for
euro exit and anger against austerity,” George Pagoulatos, professor of
European politics and economy at the Athens University of Economics and
Business, said by phone. “The government will be emphasizing the risks
associated with Syriza’s anti-bailout stance and Syriza will try to convince
voters that it can offer a viable alternative, without endangering the
country’s euro membership.”
Mexico
Bond Meltdown Erases What Little Was Left in 2014 - (www.bloomberg.com) The
biggest selloff in 20 months has tipped Mexico’s peso-denominated bonds to a
loss for the year after falling oil prices undermined optimism that an
energy-fueled investment boom would propel the securities. The government’s
local-currency debt fell 6 percent in December in dollar terms, the most since
May 2013, according to Bank of America Corp. That left the bonds, known as
Mbonos, with a 2.5 percent loss heading into the last week of the year.
Local-currency debt in other emerging markets held up better this month and has
returned 7.8 percent in dollars in 2014. Projections that Mexico’s decision to
end a 75-year oil monopoly would fuel a surge in investment -- the government
estimated as much as $50 billion by 2018 -- were damped as oil prices headed
for their biggest yearly decline since 2008. That caused the peso to weaken,
eroding returns on local debt for dollar-based investors. Signs that U.S.
interest rates are headed higher next year are also sapping demand for
higher-yielding, higher-risk assets from emerging markets.
There "Is" Blood: Energy Services Firm
Civeo Cuts Headcount 45% & Guidance By 30%, Suspends Dividend - (www.zerohedge.com) In what we suspect will be the first of many, Houston-based Civeo (which
provides workforce accomodation to the oil industry) has crashed over 20%
after-hours (after being down over 65% since September already) following the
total carnage of its earnings report.
- CIVEO HAS CUT U.S., CANADA HEADCOUNT BY 45%, 30% FROM EARLY
'14
- CIVEO SEES 2015 REV $540M-$600M, EST. $817.3M
Apparently having not only (Jana) but two (Einhorn)
activist hedge funds is not nearly sufficient to send a stock soaring to all-time
highs, especially when said stock can no longer afford to buy back its own
stock. And in what is likely the death knell for this irrational bubble, Civeo
has suspended the dividend and will use excess cash flow to cut debt in 2015 (wait
what).
Rise
in Loans Linked to Cars Is Hurting Poor - (www.nytimes.com) The
rusting 1994 Oldsmobile sitting in a driveway just outside St. Louis was an
unlikely cash machine. That was until the car’s owner, a 30-year-old hospital
lab technician, saw a television commercial describing how to get cash from
just such a car, in the form of a short-term loan. The lab technician, Caroline
O’Connor, who needed about $1,000 to cover her rent and electricity bills,
believed she had found a financial lifeline. “It was a relief,” she said. “I
did not have to beg everyone for the money.” Her loan carried an annual
interest rate of 171 percent. More than two years and $992.78 in debt later, her
car was repossessed. “These companies put people in a hole that they can’t get
out of,” Ms. O’Connor said. The automobile is at the center of the biggest boom
in subprime lending since the mortgage crisis. The market for loans to buy used
cars is growing rapidly. And similar to how a red-hot mortgage market once
coaxed millions of borrowers into recklessly tapping the equity in their homes,
the new boom is also leading people to take out risky lines of credit known as
title loans.
Kocherlakota, in strong
Fed rebuke, says FOMC taking 'unacceptable' inflation risks - (www.cnbc.com)
Greek
Vote Puts ECB Funds at Risk as Crisis Memories Revived - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ruble Dives as Russian GDP Contracts First Time in 5 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ruble Dives as Russian GDP Contracts First Time in 5 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
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