ECONOMICS

After Q3's 0.1% decline, the euro-zone was expected to see a similar economic growth (contraction) of -0.1% in Q4, crystallizing the 'technical' recession, giving The ECB the 'all-clear' for rate-cuts.

But thanks to surprising gains in Spain (and an improvement in Italy) – which offset Germany's ugliness and France's stagnation – the Eurozone economy was unchanged in Q4, technically – and miraculously – avoiding recession.

Spain's (more…)

The 'soft' data slaughterfest continues with a huge miss for The Dallas Fed's Manufacturing Outlook survey, plunging from -9.3 to -27.4 (dramatically worse than the -11 expected).

This is the biggest miss since the COVID lockdowns and back to post-COVID lows…

Source: Bloomberg

And it gets worse…

The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, dropped 17 points to -15.4 – its lowest reading since mid-2020. (more…)

In a historic development for the bankruptcy-shy China, on Monday, a Hong Kong court ordered China Evergrande – once the country's largest real estate company – to be liquidated, opening a new and unpredictable phase in the collapse of the world’s most indebted property developer. The liquidation order comes more than two years after the company’s official default, which triggered a cash crunch for Chinese developers that has crippled what was once the world's largest asset class, (more…)