KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Tuesday April 28 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Greek Bond Yields Climb Most Since Aftermath of Syriza Election - (www.bloomberg.com) Greek government bonds were set for their worst week since the aftermath of Syriza’s election victory as the nation remained locked in negotiations to secure funding and avoid a default. The yield on 10-year securities climbed to the highest since December 2012 this week, and Spanish and Italian bonds also dropped, as officials worked to reach an agreement before Greece faces payments of almost 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) next month. German 10-year yields dropped below 0.1 percent for the first time as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Wednesday that the institution’s 1.1 trillion-euro bond-buying program must be implemented in full to work.

Kaisa Keeps Creditors Guessing as China Dollar Default Looms - (www.bloomberg.com) Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. has until Monday to find $52 million for missed payments on two of its dollar bonds as it seeks to avoid default. The troubled developer must pay the interest on its 2017 and 2018 notes that was due on March 18 and March 19 respectively after the expiry of a 30-day grace period. The delay is the latest twist in a saga that has seen Kaisa’s founder Kwok Ying Shing make an unexpected return to the company, projects in Shenzhen blocked, a near default on a loan in December and a takeover offer from Sunac China Holdings Ltd. Standard & Poor’s doesn’t expect Kaisa to pay and downgraded it to default last month. “Kaisa in the last four months has been mysterious and unpredictable, and Kwok coming back is equally surprising,” said Ashley Perrott, the head of pan Asia fixed income in Singapore at UBS Global Asset Management Ltd. “It wouldn’t be a good signal if they didn’t pay the coupon.”

Shares hit by China trading clampdown fears - (www.cnbc.com) New rules for trading Chinese stocks spooked European and U.S. markets on Friday. Chinese exchanges and regulators announced Friday that they would crack down on over-the-counter margin trading and that they would allow fund managers to lend shares for short-selling. The type of stocks that investors can short sell will also be expanded soon to 1,100, from 900 currently. All of these moves could slow Chinese equities' wild run higher in recent months. Although the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index rose 2.2 percent in Friday trading, Chinese after-hours stock futures fell about 5.5 percent in a response to the new regulations. Traders said U.S. and European markets were then in turn spooked by the move in those futures, and worries that the regulatory changes would be negative for the flow of recent money that has poured into Chinese exchanges.

The ECB Is Considering A Parallel Greek Currency - (www.zerohedge.com) As we first reported yesterday, one of the proposed measures to be implemented in Greece just before, or during its default and/or exit from the Eurozone, in addition to pervasive capital controls of course, is the implementation of a parallel "currency", or as explained yesterday, a government paying its citizens with IOUs. This is what we said less than 24 hours ago: Greece might resort to IOUs and/or capital controls to avoid a disorderly default and keep the banks afloat for now. But such measures would offer a temporary solution at best and could be the first steps towards a euro-zone exit. Assuming that a deal is not reached next week, there are a couple of routes that the Greek Government might take to avert disaster in the short term. First, it could issue IOUs to pay public sector workers and pensioners and free up money to repay its debts. But this could cause economic chaos if fears that the IOUs would never be paid sparked riots or public sector employees simply refused to work. Even if Greek people accepted IOUs, they could only function for a very short period. Before long, those receiving incomes in IOUs could only afford to pay their taxes through the same medium. And given that the Government’s international creditors would not accept IOUs as repayment, this would still lead to a debt default. Effectively, the IOUs would become a parallel currency whose value was deemed lower than that of a normal euro. This would be akin to a euro-zone exit.

Oil layoffs hit 100,000 and counting – (www.bdlive.co.za) LIKE many other oil-field workers, Chris Sabulsky spent years working a schedule known as "14 on, 14 off": two weeks at an oil or gas well somewhere followed by another 14 days at home in East Texas, fishing for bass and crappie. But now Mr Sabulsky, 48 years old, is spending his days sending out résumés, calling acquaintances to see if they know of job openings, and pondering his future. The closer your job is to the actual oil well, the more in jeopardy you are of losing that job," said Tim Cook, oil and gas recruiter and president of PathFinder Staffing in Houston. "Each time an oil rig gets shut down, all the jobs at the work site are gone. They disappear." The number of working US oil and gas rigs has dropped 46% so far this year to 988, the lowest level in more than five years, according to data from Baker Hughes''

OTHER STORIES: