We expect some consolidation into August for Equities. Indeed, Risk/Reward seems momentarily stretched on the S&P500 Index, while the EuroStoxx 600 could be eying a second leg down into August. Following that, these trends should resume up possibly from late August / early September into October.
Some experts suggest that environmental regulations, such as the US decision to quit the Paris Climate Agreement, are likely to have a zero impact on the US economy. Do you share this point of view? Why?
It depends on a period of time that you are talking about. I think that in the long run it has a negative impact. I believe that the energy sector, especially alternative energy sources, hold tremendous opportunities for economic growth. If the US is not going to push in that direction, then other counties will take that growth away. Thus, I think that within the next two years there may be no effect, but, going forward, it has a negative impact on the US economy.
Greece plans to issue bonds next week for the first time in three years, according to news reports. Rumors had circulated that the country would make a return to debt markets early this week. But the government pushed back the date of its five-year bond issue to next week to avoid higher borrowing costs, according to Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper. Since the weekend, the country’s bond prices have risen as investors hope the proceeds will strengthen Greece’s finances.
Britain aims to stay in a good relationship with the European Union and continue cooperation on security and defence issues. What is your own opinion, will Britain be able to maintain a good partnership with the EU?
This is obviously the key question at the moment. We all hope that relations between Britain, the European Union and, of course, individual EU countries will remain cordial, though the negotiations are likely to be extremely difficult and complex, while there is a chance of tensions being raised and disagreements being voiced strongly at various points in time. What is important is that once negotiations are finished, we have good trading arrangements between the UK on the one side and the 27 EU countries on the other. At this point in time, it is impossible to know exactly what these trading arrangements are going to be.
Chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt and leaders of four of the parliament’s main groups wrote in a joint letter to newspapers that Britain’s plans for the three million EU citizens expecting to remain in the U.K. post-Brexit "fall short" of what they are entitled to and what U.K. nationals are being offered in the EU.
EU Parliamentarian Guy Verhofstadt has called proposals put forward by the UK government a "damp squib" which would leave millions of Europeans with "second-class citizenship".
In a bold experiment in voluntary taxation, the Norwegian government launched an initiative in June that allowed those who thought their taxes to be too low to make contributions to the state.
“The tax scheme was set up to allow those who want to pay more taxes to do so in a simple and straightforward way,” Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a comment emailed to Bloomberg reporters. “If anyone thinks the tax level is too low, they now have the chance to pay more.”
Japan and the European Union agreed on a free trade pact on Thursday to create the world’s biggest open economic area and signal resistance to what they see as U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist turn.
Concluded in Brussels on the eve of meetings with Trump at a summit in Hamburg, the "political agreement" between two economies accounting for a third of global GDP is heavy with symbolism. The deal will rival the size of NAFTA, the free trade accord that the US has with Canada and Mexico – currently the largest one in the world.
Deutsche Bank is gearing up to re-home many of its trading and investment-banking assets back to Frankfurt from London over Brexit, according to a Bloomberg report.
Germany’s largest lender would relocate most of the business reported in London to a so-called booking center in Frankfurt under the plan, said the people with knowledge of the matter. The strategy, which is still being finalized and would be reviewed if the Brexit scenario changes, will probably be implemented over the next 18 months; trading jobs and up to 20,000 client accounts could also be shifted, the source told Bloomberg.
