Tag: Eurozone

Will 2016 Bring A Turnaround In FX?

Posted on by Lior Alkalay

Lior Alkalay - INO.com Contributor - Forex


The year 2015, no doubt, has been a year to remember. Markets saw the first Fed rate hike in years which pushed the Dollar ever higher. In the Eurozone, the ECB's QE pushed the Euro to lows it hasn't seen in years. And in China, the Yuan, too, is being pushed to record lows as China's economy gets squeezed.

Now, with 2016 practically knocking at the door, the question is will 2016 be the year of a turnaround? Or will the themes of 2015 continue to dominate? Here are some major areas to focus on which can help us figure it all out. Continue reading "Will 2016 Bring A Turnaround In FX?" →

Mario Draghi Must Act Now

Posted on by Lior Alkalay

Lior Alkalay - INO.com Contributor - Forex


The coming weeks could be pivotal ones for the Euro. This time, it isn’t because of a threat to its existence or a member state’s bankruptcy. No, this time, it will be because of the actions of Mario Draghi and the European Central Bank. The ECB chief has the power to ignite the momentum desperately needed to awaken the Eurozone from its economic stupor. Simply put, Mario Draghi must push the Euro below 1 Dollar.

The Eurozone Lately

When we examine the latest trends in the Eurozone, we do see some positive signs. Exports have recovered, and industrial production has increased, as well. On the consumer front, retail sales have also been accelerating nicely. On top of that, the Eurozone’s GDP growth rate has been inching up, albeit at a very moderate pace. Continue reading "Mario Draghi Must Act Now" →

Time For Europe To Cut Its Losses

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


One of the most exasperating novels I've ever read is Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. The "hero" of the novel, Philip Carey, is hopelessly infatuated with Mildred Rogers, an unattractive, sickly, boorish shop girl several social rungs lower than himself. She takes horrible advantage of the good-natured generosity and sincerity of Carey, who time after time bails Mildred out of one self-created problem after another, only to be kicked in the pants (figuratively, of course) for his trouble and good intentions. And yet he continually comes back for more.

While you're reading the book (or watching one of the movies based on it), you keep asking yourself: When the heck is Carey ever going to wake up and smell the coffee?

Does this sound like any current European crisis you may have read about recently in the financial media? Continue reading "Time For Europe To Cut Its Losses" →

Grexit: Hope For The Worst?

Posted on by Lior Alkalay

Lior Alkalay - INO.com Contributor - Forex


Are we experiencing the beginning of the end for the euro? For roughly three years, it seems as though politicians have been kicking the can down the road, putting off the apocalypse right at the last minute. And investors in the currency have had their patience stretched to the limit, vacillating between no hope and naivety that the Greek problem had gone away.

After Greece came Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland, but while the rest have been able to curb the risk and get a grip on things, the Greek problem has kept coming back. Now it seems that we've reached the end, the moment of truth, what investors have been dreading for the last three years – that Greece will eventually default and leave the Eurozone, and that it will spell the end of the euro. But now that the end has come, it seems as though investors have not only learned to live with the idea of a Grexit but to actually want it. The saying goes that you have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, and more and more voices are indicating that some institutional investors are now hoping for the worst, for Greece to leave the euro. But why? Continue reading "Grexit: Hope For The Worst?" →

Their Greece, And Now Ours

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


"You mean, you were serious?"

You can just hear Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asking the European Central Bank that question after the ECB called his bluff and refused to advance Greek banks any more emergency funds, forcing them to close for at least a week and the Athens stock market to also suspend trading. Needless to say, Greece will default on a $1.7 billion debt payment to the International Monetary Fund that comes due June 30.

Until the ECB finally learned how to say No (or, in this case, Nein) over the weekend, Tsipras was confident that his following the J. Paul Getty school of financial negotiating ("If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem") would work and that the ECB and its fellow official creditors to Greece would eventually knuckle under to his anti-austerity demands and continue to kick the can down the road yet again. Continue reading "Their Greece, And Now Ours" →