FURTHER FURTHER READING
- How much blame does Mervyn King deserve?
- Testing Abenomics.
- Has the US deficit monster been defeated?
- Good new interactive chart of US home prices by city.
- IMF: whoops I did it again.
ROUND-UP
FT markets round-up: "Steep falls for the dollar against the yen and the euro, and volatile performances by equities and government bonds, offered a stark illustration of the extent of investor uncertainty about the health of the US economy prior to the release of non-farm payrolls data. The US currency sank as much as 3 per cent against the yen to briefly trade below Y96, while the euro touched $1.33 for the first time since February. The dollar later pulled back to Y97.06, down 2 per cent on the day. Volatility was also on show in the US government bond market, as the yield on the 10-year Treasury ended 1 basis point lower at 2.08 per cent, having earlier fallen below 2 per cent. The German Bund yield rose 2bp to 1.53 per cent in the wake of Mr Draghi's post-meeting comments, while peripheral eurozone bond yields jumped. Spain's 10-year yield leapt 22bp to 4.64 per cent and Italy's 19bp to 4.34 per cent." (Financial Times)
Draghi lauds 'most successful' ECB action: "A combative Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, strongly defended one of his bank's most unorthodox and controversial moves of the eurozone crisis as "probably the most successful monetary policy measure undertaken in recent times".Speaking after the ECB kept its main refinancing rate on hold at 0.5 per cent and decided to keep any other non-standard measures "on the shelf", Mr Draghi said an absence of deflationary risks in the eurozone and a stock market rally were the fruits of the bank's outright monetary transactions, or OMT scheme, announced last September." (Financial Times)
Big Tobacco bets a packet on e-cigarettes: "Big Tobacco in the US is raising its bet on the growth of electronic cigarettes to offset the decline of traditional smoking with Reynolds American, the maker of Camel and Pall Mall launching its first smokeless, battery-powered device. Reynolds, the second-biggest US tobacco company by market share, has hailed e-smoking as a "game-changer" for the industry, with chief executive Dan Delen on Thursday calling the launch a "fantastic business opportunity"." (Financial Times)
Foreign derivatives push divides US regulator: "Brewing discord has burst into the open at a US regulator seeking to impose new rules on derivatives, suggesting a push to clamp down on cross-border transactions in the $633tn market will stall. Three of the five commissioners at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission publicly questioned the timeline for passing guidelines aimed to ensure that trading blow-ups at foreign branches or guaranteed affiliates of US banks do not hit the American taxpayer." (Financial Times)
