Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news Moody's has cut Slovenia's credit rating to junk, to Ba1 from Baa2 and said the outlook was negative. Slovenia pulled a big bond tender following the downgrade.
Spain's economy shrank for a seventh consecutive quarter between January and March as domestic demand slumped. On an annual basis, Spain's economy shrank 2% in the quarter - the worst fall since the end of 2011. Its government cut its forecast for 2013, saying it now expected the economy to shrink by 1.3%.
Not everyone is depressed in Greece. Greek shipping companies, the owners of one in six merchant vessels, are ordering the most new iron-ore carriers since 2008, betting the five-year rout in charter rates may be nearing an end.
And following yesterday's approval by the Greek parliament of a key public service reform, Cypriot lawmakers narrowly approved the island's €10 billion bailout deal, paving the way for the country to receive its first installment of aid in a few weeks.
In the US, sharp drops in the number of homes listed for sale and growing demand for home purchases sent American home prices up by 9.3% in February from a year ago, the largest growth rate in nearly seven years. At the same time it has been reported that the Q1 2013 home ownership rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1995, at 65%. (The last time this rate was calculated for New Zealand, it was 65% in 2004. New data will be released soon based on the 2013 NZ census.)
Also in the US, Apple announced a US$17 billion bond sale, the largest such US corporate sale in history. It will yield 2.375%.
It was quickly 3 times oversubscribed. Exactly why Apple needs the cash isn't clear because they are already sitting on a $100 bln mountain and have agreed to return much of that to shareholders, although avoiding triggering tax bills is the most likely reason.
The Kiwi dollar starts the new month a touch lower on the day at 85.6 USc but a cent higher than the April average, 82.7 AUc, and our TWI is at 78.6.
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4 Comments
Henry - I stand by my comments here - but have no idea about the difference between a dividend and distribution - never traded stocks - due to my belief that too much secret coprorate info is never made public, and yet I was a registered stock market analyst for most of my working life.
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