Finance Matters

Posts Tagged ‘Portugal’

S&P 500 futures just jumped around 11 points on the this morning’s huge jobs report.

Dow futures jumped 97 points.

Nasdaq futures surged 22 points.

Meanwhile, Treasuries are selling off with the yield on the 10-year note jumping 9 basis points.

Risk on!

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• STOCKS MAKE HUGE COMEBACK AND PORTUGAL IS PUSHED TO THE BRINK: Here’s What You Need To Know
• Asian Markets Inch Higher On Bullish Japanese Data
• STOCKS GO NOWHERE ON MORE DISAPPOINTING DATA: Here’s What You Need To Know

Paul Krugman is giving a talk in Paris, and he’s put up several charts that he says are key to understanding the Eurozone crisis.

This one may be the best, as it debunks the idea that the PIIGS — called the GIPSIs in this chart — were running up debt like crazy.

They weren’t. They had declining ratios, which only exploded once the financial crisis hit.

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See Also:

• Why Portugal Might Be The Real Trigger That Causes The Eurozone To Spiral Out Of Control
• Two Big Lessons From The Dazzling Market Rally In Europe…
• European Markets EXPLODE Higher And Investors Wonder If The Rally Can Last

In an interim management statement today, banking giant Barclays said profits climbed 5% in the third quarter – boosted by cost-cutting measures.

For the three months to the end of September, the bank said pre-tax profits were £1.34 billion, versus £1.27 billion for the same period a year earlier.

However, revenues for the three month period were down 3% at £7 billion, as a result of “significant economic and market headwinds”, the bank said.

The bank, which is one of the few not to have received any financial help from the Government, said profits declined at its main investment banking unit, Barclays Capital, with profits 49% lower at £388 million.

For the nine-month period to 30 September, meanwhile, the bank’s group-wide profits rose 18%.

Commenting on the figures, Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, said: “Our focus on cost reduction continues to deliver results and we are confident that we will exceed the £1bn savings target we set earlier this year.”

Talking about its exposure to the euro zone debt crisis, Mr Diamond said it was monitoring this.

It said the bank’s sovereign exposure to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece reduced by 31% to £8 billion in the three month period.

Finally, the bank said it remains committed to UK lending and is on track to exceed its target, as set out in the Project Merlin scheme, agreed earlier this year.

Just a warning: We’re going to have to start talking about Portugal again, probably rather soon.

Remember, this is a country that’s already received IMF assistance, and its 2-year debt is trading over 18%.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard recently wrote a story about its “Grecian vortex”, citing worrying comments from ECB officials on Portugal.

Meanwhile, its leadership, having seen the sweet deal received by Greece, is already chattering about renegotiating its bailout.

Bottom line: Pretty soon we’ll have to talk about this a lot more.

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See Also:

• Basically Just Keep Watching This One Chart
• Mutually Assured Destruction Works Again
• Have You Seen The French Banks Today?

Cristiano Ronaldo scored this beautiful free kick for Portugal when they played Denmark in the Eurocup 2012 qualifier today. Denmark won the game 2-1 (via TOW).

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• WATCH: A Soccer Team Plays A Real Life Version Of Angry Birds
• Wayne Rooney’s Dad Was Arrested In A Scottish Soccer Betting Scandal Today
• Silvio Berlusconi Told One Of His Superstar Soccer Players To Cut Off His Ponytail