The
Collapse Of Italy's Banks Threatens To Plunge The European Financial System
Into Chaos - (www.theeconomiccollapseblog.com) The Italian banking system is a “leaning tower”
that truly could completely collapse at literally any moment. And as
Italy’s banks begin to go down like dominoes, it is going to set off financial
panic all over Europe unlike anything we have ever seen before. I wrote
about the troubles in Italy back in January, but since that time the crisis has
escalated. At this point, Italian banking stocks have declined a
whopping 28 percent since the beginning of 2016, and when you
look at some of the biggest Italian banks the numbers become even more
frightening.
Junk Bond Indexes Are Getting Junkier - (www.bloomberg.com) As
ultra-low oil prices have forced a quick reevaluation of the energy sector's fortunes, credit
rating companies have been downgrading energy companies, including Chesapeake
Energy Corp. and Whiting Petroleum Corp. The downgrades have fed into
the high-yield bond indexes often used by investors to benchmark
their returns. The trend means some $28.6 billion worth of energy-related debt
has left the BBB and B-rated buckets of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch
High-Yield Bond Index, migrating into the lower-rated BB and CCC brackets instead, according to CreditSights. Basic
industry, which includes many mining companies, also saw a relatively big
migration, with $21 billion leaving the BBB category.
Ex-Continental
CEO: UAL board is a country club - (www.cnbc.com) Former
Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune on Tuesday criticized United
Continental's (UAL) board
for conducting business in a "country club atmosphere." He made the
comment after two hedge funds said they will try to force the board to appoint
him as chairman. The firms, PAR Capital Management and Altimeter Capital, said
they will also nominate five other candidates to the board. Bethune was
Continental's CEO until 2004. The airline merged with United in 2010. "As
long-term United stockholders, we have been greatly disappointed with United's
poor performance and bad decisions over the last several years," said Brad
Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter.
The $5 Trillion Quandary as Negative-Yielding
Japanese Debt Doubles - (www.bloomberg.com)
The amount of Japanese government bonds in the
market offering negative yields has doubled this year to more than 600 trillion
yen ($5.3 trillion) and that’s a major headache for the finance industry. After
the Bank of Japan’s surprise decision on Jan. 29 to implement negative interest
rates on some deposits, almost three-quarters of total JGBs would offer no
returns or even burn a hole in balance sheets if bought now. The government got paid to
borrow 2.2 trillion yen for a decade for the first time at an auction last
week, and set a record-low 0.8 percent coupon for an auction of about 800
billion yen of 30-year securities Tuesday.
EU Warns of Contagion From France, Italy
Economic Weaknesses - (www.bloomberg.com)
The
European Commission warned France and Italy that weaknesses in their economies
risk triggering a new wave of contagion to other countries as it placed the two
nations in its most severe category for economic imbalances. The euro bloc’s
second- and third-largest economies, as well as Portugal and two non-euro
countries -- Bulgaria and Hungary -- have “excessive imbalances,” the European
Union’s executive arm said on Tuesday. The EU said it will escalate its
policing of these countries’ spending policies as it warned of rising levels of
public debt.
Iron Ore Jumps Most on Record as Market Goes 'Berserk' - (www.bloomberg.com)
ECB Reviewing QE Bought 62 Billion Euros of Debt in February - (www.bloomberg.com)
Record number of millionaires living in the US - (www.cnbc.com)
The ETF Files - (www.bloomberg.com)
China’s Surging Credit Has Some Raising the Caution Flag - (online.wsj.com)
China’s Outflows of Money Slowed in February - (www.nytimes.com)
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