S&P hits euro zone with downgrades

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday stripped France of its coveted triple-A credit rating and reduced Portugal’s debt status to junk as part of a broad reassessment of Europe’s financial soundness that highlights the severity of the euro zone’s persistent sovereign debt crisis and complicates efforts to resolve it.

Germany escaped S&P’s scrutiny unharmed. It’s triple-A credit rating was left unchanged and given a stable outlook.

S&P’s steps were certain to make it more difficult for European leaders to solve the debt crisis and could trigger a period of volatility in financial markets similar to what investors experienced in the wake of S&P’s downgrade of the United States last year, said Jeremy Hare, Managing Director of Investments at Gilford Securities. S&P’s moves would also, Hare said, shine a harsh light on the leaders’ ineffectual efforts to solve the crisis.

“It hits them right on the chin,” Hare said. “S&P is calling (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel out and saying, ‘Hey, fix the problem’.”

S&P cut France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch, stripping France and Austria of rare triple-A ratings that were key to their ability to support efforts to rescue struggling euro zone members. The ratings agency also downgraded by two notches Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus. Portugal and Cyprus were cut to junk status.

Of the countries mentioned in Friday’s statement, only Germany and Slovakia were given stable outlooks. The rest received negative outlooks, meaning S&P believes there is at least a one-in-three chance they may be downgraded in 2012 or 2013.

S&P said it was taking the actions because Europe’s leaders had failed at recent meetings to take decisive steps to solve the region’s debt crisis. It specifically noted that a Dec. 9 summit deal did not go far enough.

“The political agreement does not supply sufficient additional resources or operational flexibility to bolster European rescue operations, or extend enough support for those euro zone sovereigns subjected to heightened market pressures,” S&P said in a statement.

S&P went further, casting doubt on Europe’s approach of insisting on tough austerity measures as the main path to restoring financial stability in Europe.

“We believe that a reform process based on a pillar of fiscal austerity alone risks becoming self-defeating,” the agency said.

Instead, it highlighted “rising external imbalances and divergences in competitiveness between the euro zone’s core and the so-called ‘periphery’” as a significant source of the bloc’s problems that needed to be addressed.

The news of S&P’s action was greeted with dismay by European leaders.

“This is not good news,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in an appearance on French national television. Baroin called the downgrade “a semisurprise” and added that it was “not a catastrophe.”

Baroin, who spoke after a day of swirling rumors about an imminent downgrade of France, also said that France’s economic policies would not change as a result of the downgrade.

“It is not the rating agencies who dictate French policy,” he said.

European Commission Vice President Olli Rehn said the euro zone had taken decisive action to fix the crisis.

“I regret the inconsistent decision earlier today by Standard and Poor’s concerning the rating of several euro area member states, at a time when the euro area is tak[ing] decisive action in all fronts of its crisis response,” Rehn said in a statement.

The news, along with an apparent breakdown in negotiations over writedowns for Greek government debt, was credited with sending the euro to a fresh 16-month low versus the dollar.

“To the extent that [a downgrade] has been anticipated ever since S&P launched its review of euro area sovereign ratings in early December, a smattering of downgrades should have already been priced in,” said Grant Lewis, economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.

S&P last month warned that downgrades were possible for 15 euro-zone countries, including triple-A rated France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Still, a downgrade for France all but ensures that the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro-zone’s temporary rescue fund, will also lose its triple-A rating, Lewis and other economists noted.

“A downgrade to France’s rating will be a severe blow to the useless EFSF,” said Stephen Pope, managing director of Spotlight Ideas, a London consulting firm.

Efforts to boost the firepower of the EFSF by employing leverage or attracting overseas funding have fallen flat in recent months. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have urged bringing forward the launch of the permanent rescue mechanism, the European Stability Mechanism, from 2013 to this summer.

Merkel opened the door to increased funding of the ESM in a news conference earlier this week.

A downgrade will make life difficult for Italy as it struggles to convince investors it can get a grip on its debt burden.

Italy this week saw borrowing costs fall dramatically at a pair of debt auctions, but bigger tests loom in coming weeks as the government prepares to issue longer-term debt.

A two-notch downgrade by S&P would put Italy into the B-bracket, the lowest investment-grade category, noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com. That could result in a rise in margin requirements, which would in turn put more upward pressure on yields, she said.

Meanwhile, France is poised to sell €8.7 billion of debt on Monday, while the EFSF and Germany also plan to auction debt next week, she noted, ensuring a “tense market open” when Europe returns to work next week. 

Credits -By William L. Watts and Christopher Noble, MarketWatch

Apple threat looms over TV at CES

The last two Consumer Electronics Shows were overshadowed by Apple AAPL +1.02%  — first in 2010 by rumors of a tablet and then in 2011 by the iPad’s stunning success. Indeed January 2011 brought a slew of iPad wanna-bes, many of which have become road kill, as we predicted. The CES shows in 2008 and 2009 were impacted by the 2007 launch of Apple’s first iPhone.

 

This year, as the sprawling show floor officially opens in Las Vegas today, should be no different. Except that this time around, the specter of Apple and its rumored plans will torment the core of CES: the television business, ripe for the picking with a growing number of customers fed up with costly cable service and the lack of innovation in TVs.

“Apple is a very prominent non-participant at CES, within the TV industry and elsewhere in the consumer electronics industry,” said Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research at NPD DisplaySearch

The Cupertino, Calif. company has not made any announcements in TV beyond its Apple TV set-top box, which former CEO Steve Jobs once called a “hobby.” But before his death in October 2011, Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” TV with the “simplest user interface,” that would synch with all your devices and get rid of the complex remote controls now used for DVD players and cable.

“Apple is going to do something at some point,” said Shaw Wu, a Sterne Agee analyst. “It’s a question of timing.”

The television market is clearly in the cross hairs. Consumers are frustrated with high costs for cable services, including paying for hundreds of channels they never watch and systems with antiquated or bizarre navigation tools. There’s also a high saturation point of consumers who have already purchased a big-screen HDTV.

Google Inc. GOOG +0.95%  is providing one effort with its Android based software that integrates streaming Web content with standard TV fare.

But its first generation of Google TV, unrolled in 2010, was underwhelming. At CES, some TV makers are showing Google TV built into new sets with the latest second generation software by the Internet search giant.

“This year the TV industry had kind of muddled through,” said Gagnon. “2011 was not a strong growth year for the TV industry. A lot of people own them and TV makers are trying to find something to excite consumers to get them to trade up.”

So now, consumers who don’t need to upgrade their TV set for awhile, want smarter, more navigable, and less costly viewing. The instances of cord cutting — those who are getting rid of their cable service — is creeping upwards, as more consumers are watching network TV shows or movies streamed over the Internet, cancelling cable and the hundreds of channels they never watch.

 

A study by Deloitte earlier this week of U.S.consumers reported that 9% of respondents had canceled cable subscriptions, and another 11% said they were considering it. Viewers are also watching TV shows and even movies on other devices, including tablets and smartphones.

“Apple could totally change the game,” Wu said. “The content is what’s holding it up. It’s tough to predict. The most important trend is cord cutting.” Wu noted it is still a nascent trend and that cable companies and broadcasters still hold the cards with their content. “But if that continues, and the content guys are losing business, they may be forced to explore with Apple where they have to change their business model.”

Some speculation around Apple TV includes theories that Apple may even be developing its own TV, and thus would control the whole ecosystem, much as it does with the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod, and the Mac.

Credit -Therese Poletti

Live life to the fullest

These 10 lines are extremely meaningful even though they might seem simple and ordinary.


Sometimes, we are too troubled over unnecessary things and we make life difficult.


Personally, I'm a really optimistic, motivated and cheerful person. I hope that everyone out there will get out of the "emo trend" soon and not indulge in such a damaging culture!


Live life to the fullest ! :)




Credits -All rights reserved by -kristinmarie

Credit Suisse Pushes on Integration

Credit Suisse Group plans to integrate the operational functions of its private-banking and investment-banking divisions into a new global entity, as the Swiss bank seeks to cut costs and improve profits.

The new unit, which will be combined effective Jan. 1 and report to Chief Financial Officer David Mathers, will be led by Gary Bullock.

This latest move, which seeks to make the two businesses work more closely with each other, comes as the banking industry faces a profit squeeze amid a global crackdown on tax havens, dismal financial markets, deteriorating economic prospects and tougher regulators.

The move at Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank by assets, comes after it said last month that it will fold its Clariden Leu subsidiary into the rest of the bank, eliminating a brand that has been around for more than 250 years.

It also recently said it would split its European private-banking operations into two, to better address the diverging needs of clients in Western Europe and emerging Europe.

The bank is going the opposite way at the investment bank, where it plans to fold emerging-market currencies and fixed-income operations into the global foreign exchange division. The move, announced Thursday, is a response to clients' requests to have only one desk to turn to for currency deals, it said.

This new desk will be led by Ben Shooter, who now heads European currency sales, it said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bullock will work closely with Romeo Lacher, head of private-banking operations, and Stef Toffolo, head of investment-banking operations, as well as with the respective management teams to ensure business continuity and a smooth transition.

"These changes will accelerate the development of more integrated operating and securities processing platforms across the bank, improving client access to our products and reducing the cost of delivery," the bank said in its memo to all staff.

"These measures will also significantly contribute to the bank's overall cost-reduction efforts," Credit Suisse added.

Credit Suisse plans to reduce annual expenses by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.1 billion) and cut around 3,500 jobs by 2014.

These steps to boost efficiency come as the banking industry battles a raft of challenges. Among them are requests from regulators to raise capital and reduce risks to better withstand fallout from the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis.

The loss of confidence in the banking system has resulted in a sharp fall in activity on the interbank market, which in turn is leading to higher refinancing costs and liquidity bottlenecks, warned Thomas Jordan, the Swiss central bank's vice president.

"The deterioration in the global economic environment hasn't left the Swiss big banks unscathed," he said at the Swiss National Bank's annual media conference Thursday. "In the second half of 2011, their profitability suffered from the volatile financial market situation as well as from low customer activity levels."

The central bank welcomes efforts by the two big banks, Credit Suisse and UBS AG, to significantly reduce their risk exposure and boost capital, but more is needed, he said.

A second area of concern for the banks is the global crackdown on tax havens, which is driving up costs for Swiss private banks.

Since Europe and the U.S. got tough on tax havens, Swiss banks have been forced to reinvent their business models and offer their clients more than protection from tax authorities. Switzerland recently negotiated deals with Germany and the U.K. that aim to make sure that taxes on wealth managed in Switzerland are paid, while preserving the privacy of banking clients.

The changes in dealing with untaxed assets come at a difficult time for the industry. Fees are falling because clients are shying away from trading, even as the value of their assets is declining due to tough financial markets.

—Alexandra Fletcher in London contributed to this article.