Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
The downsides of quantitative easing, Garcia smackdown watch. Cardiff takes up the challenge from Brad Delong to explain why the downsides to continued QE are far from trivial.
The year of assessing comprehensively. The ECB has laid out its introduction to a year long party of asset quality reviewing and stress tests for Europe's 124 banks.
NEWS
Spain ends two-year recession amid effort to add jobs. GDP expanded 0.1 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the Bank of Spain estimated in its monthly bulletin today, suggesting that the country has begun to emerge from its second recession since 2008. The slight gain in output would reverse the 0.1 per cent decline seen in the second quarter. (Bloomberg).
Peugeot is to reconsider aspects of an alliance with General Motors. The Carmaker said that some aspects of its cost saving alliance with GM are under review and may not produce the hoped for $2bn in savings, causing it to miss targets set for the next three years. It comes as the French carmaker is in talks with Chinese group Dongfeng about a capital injection. (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal).
Asos on brink of launching in China. Reporting a 40 per cent jump in annual sales on Wednesday, one of three UK retailers reporting solid sales growth, the online fashion operator said it planned to launch in China. (Financial Times).
HTC scales back production as sales slump worsens. The Taiwanese smartphone maker has halted a production line representing at least a fifth of total capacity as a sales slump puts pressure on cashflow, according to sources familiar with the company (Reuters).
Greece cuts off state funding to Golden Dawn. Parliament voted early on Wednesday to cut state funding to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party following a judicial decision to prosecute its leader as the head of a 'criminal gang' (Financial Times).
Heineken Cuts Profit Outlook. The Dutch brewer, the world's third largest by sales, predicted that profits would decline this year, reflecting challenging trading in Central and Eastern Europe and a stronger Euro. The company had previously forecast stable earnings, and said it would find additional costs to cut in Europe (Wall Street Journal).
China bond market emerges from the shadows. Financial reforms have begun to crack open China's $4tn domestic bond market, the fourth largest in the world, to outside investors. Singapore on Tuesday joined London and Hong Kong as financial centres where investors can apply for quotas under China's renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor scheme to invest directly in domestic Chinese assets (Financial Times).
