04th
Feburary 2010
FirstCaribbean
Daily Markets Report
Tuesday, February
02nd, 2010
Global
Markets
• Manufacturing
expanded in January at the fastest pace since
August 2004, indicating production gains that
are spearheading the U.S. recovery may soon
encourage companies to hire.
• President
Barack Obama will propose providing community
banks with $30 billion to spur lending to small
businesses, administration officials said.
• Retail
sales in Germany, Europe's largest economy,
increased in December as the improving economic
outlook bolstered Christmas spending.
• Australia’s
central bank unexpectedly paused in raising
interest rates as Governor Glenn Stevens opted
to support the economy’s acceleration
and stem inflation later. The Reserve Bank of
Australia kept the overnight cash rate target
at 3.75 percent after three increases, it said
in Sydney today.
• Nomura
Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest brokerage,
returned to profit in the third quarter on a
nine-fold surge in the value of local equity
sales as the nation’s banks issued new
stock to bolster capital.
• China’s
government, seeking to stem property speculation,
told banks to raise interest rates on third
mortgages and demand bigger down payments for
such loans, a person with knowledge of the matter
said.
• Japan's
wages slumped at a near- record pace in December
as employers pared workers' bonuses, an indication
that consumer spending is unlikely to drive
the economic recovery.
Figure
1: U.S. Daily Economic Indicators
Caribbean
Markets
Caribbean
• As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) continues its increasingly
relentless crackdown on tax evasion through
the holding of bank accounts in foreign countries,
Grenada and Belize could be in imminent danger
of attracting tough sanctions from North America
and Europe.
•
The global hunt for tax evaders which, in the
face of the current financial crisis is high
on the G20 agenda appears to have fingered the
CARICOM states as two countries in the region
that offer insufficient tax transparency and,
as a consequence could face sanctions.
Bahamas
• The Latin American tourist market has
huge potential for The Bahamas, Minister of
Tourism and Aviation Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace
has asserted, saying a direct flight from the
region is vital.
Barbados
• Prime Minister David Thompson has made
it clear that his Government is ready and willing
to lend an ear to investors, once their investment
plans line up with Barbados’ National
goals.
•
A new agreement for the Four Seasons project
with lenders, creditors, private residence owners,
shareholders and developers, will see Government
supporting the refinancing efforts to complete
the project.
•
Economic Affairs Minister David Estwick says
that the country’s public sector debt
is too high. According to him, it is right now
approximately 120 per cent of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), twice that of the internationally
accepted standard.
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