Monday December 12 2016 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Foreclosure Crisis Comes Full Circle? Biggest Buy-to-Rent Landlord Plans IPO (Despite Red Ink Everywhere) - (www.wolfstreet.com) In the Fed-engineered asset price inflation since the Financial Crisis, the value of the US housing stock has ballooned to $35 trillion, as large private equity firms have muscled into the single-family housing market, long the domain of mom-and-pop investors. They have acquired about 160,000 single-family houses out of foreclosure for least $32 billion. In the process, the homeownership rate has dropped to the lowest since 1965. And now comes the time to sell it to the public. The largest player in the field, Blackstone’s Invitation Homes, which spent about $10 billion since the Financial Crisis, or about $150 million a week during the heyday, on about 50,000 homes in 14 metropolitan areas, has confidentially filed for an IPO, according to The Wall Street Journal. But it will face some, let’s say, challenges.

Indian Economy Crashes As Modi's "Black Money" Theory Collapses – (www.zerohedge.com) Amid social unrest and loss of faith in the nation's currency, India's economy has ground to a halt with its Composite PMI crashing by a record in the last month as demonetization strikes. However, even more problematic is that Indians have validated 82% of bank notes rendered worthless by PM Modi, dramatically undermining the government’s estimate of unaccounted wealth in the economy.

Exclusive: Italy treasury considers hiking Monte Paschi stake via debt swap - sources - (www.reuters.com) Italy is preparing to take a 2 billion euros controlling stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) as the bank's hopes of a private funding rescue fade following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's decision to quit, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. The government is already the ailing bank's single largest shareholder with a four percent share, but is planning to buy junior bonds held by ordinary Italians to take the stake up to 40 percent, the sources said. This would make it by far the biggest shareholder, meaning the Treasury would be able to control Italy's third biggest bank and its shareholder meetings.

Italy readying state bailout for Monte dei Paschi bank-sources - (www.reuters.com) Italy is preparing a state bailout for Monte dei Paschi di Siena as the bank's hopes of being saved by private funding fade following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's decision to quit, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. One of the sources said a government decree authorising the deal could be rushed through as early as this weekend. Monte dei Paschi must raise 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) by the end of December to avert the risk of being wound down, but investors are reluctant to provide cash after Renzi lost a referendum on Sunday and announced plans to resign.

Islamic finance set to change gold market - (www.khaleejtimes.com)  We don't have the full details of the guidelines but expect to find out more this week at the World Islamic Banking Conference. However, we do know three things that the new Shariah gold-standard will achieve: first, it will increase both the number and diversity of available Shariah-compliant gold investment products; second, it will place far greater emphasis on the role of physical gold in gold transactions; finally, it will give a greater role to Islamic finance in the setting of the gold price... If Islamic Finance institutions were to allocate just one per cent of assets into new gold products then we would expect to see demand climb by about 500-1000 tonnes, per annum. Given that recent demand and supply figures showed a surplus of just 172 tonnes of gold in the market, we could begin to see some tightening with the increase of Shariah-compliant gold instruments, which will have a positive impact on the price.

OTHER STORIES:

Stocks Edge Toward Records as ECB Meeting Looms; Crude Retreats - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Is Pausing on U.S. Deals, Ex-Goldman Rainmaker Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Donald Trump's win sets the stage for record flow of cash to US stocks - (www.cnbc.com)
Donald Trump gets tough on China by borrowing a little from Beijing's playbook - (www.cnbc.com)

Fed May Struggle to Signal What Comes After December - (www.ft.com)
EU companies in China hit by new exchange controls - (www.ft.com)
Credit binge and fall in income leaves Asian companies exposed - (www.ft.com)