Showing posts with label economic crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economic crisis. Show all posts

February 22, 2012

Keep a close watch on Greece at least for the next 08 days

After Greece bailout and the agreement with Euro zone leaders about the austerity measures and the external supervision on Greece finance, the pressure in the market and Europe in general could breathe relieved. Is that true??? Well partially. For sure the agreement on releasing the bailout is a good news but we need to have at least three important subjects on our mind when thinking about our investment portfolio.
1) The first one is the fact that Greece has only about a week to approve and implement the austerity measures in order to be given the first part of the approved bailout. A fail in meeting this target would clearly shake the market.

2) Banks and financial institutes that had lent money to Greece will receive much less now than previously agreed and it was already noticed by the market in their stock values. Also they may stop paying dividends in a drastic case which would directly affect preferred stocks and/or bonds.

3) for Greece to be able to sustain the austerity measures and to promote growth in the future to their country, they would need the support and commitment of the all population, which is not happened right now (see example of Korea that lived similar situation in the past). So, in summary, even after the bailout, keep Greece in your mind and closely watch their actions, especially during this week, being conservative in your portfolio for investments that may be affected by their crisis.

February 1, 2012

Portugal effect in your Portfolio

After a great January results in stock markets we feel it is a good time for you to review your portfolio and, in case you have European positions, to take a carefully look on them and ensure you are comfortable with the risks and financials involved in them. At this time you probably have recovered some of the losses involved in European crisis, so if you need to rearrange some of your investments you can make this decision without acknowledge losses or at least which much less exposure then if you were in the middle of second semester of 2011. From now on we understand that Portugal we play a more important role in the already tough pressure on European financial crisis due to its high debt level and its difficulty to get new loans with banks that are running to get financial insurance and be protected against similar scenarios they lived with Greece.