Turkey: Moody's remains on hold and upbeat

Turkey: Moody's remains on hold and upbeat

Moody's is holding its 6th Annual Turkey Credit Risk Conference in Istanbul today. In the morning session of the meeting, Turkey analyst Sarah Carlson made a presentation on "Sovereign risk in Europe: Turkey and the Euro Area." Recall that, Moody's maintained Turkey's sovereign rating unchanged at Ba1 and kept the positive outlook yesterday.

Worldwide Plaza Confirms Recapitalization Plans

Worldwide Plaza Confirms Recapitalization Plans
By Karsten Strauss 11/21/12 1:37pm

Worldwide Plaza will definitely look to recapitalize, following several months of lingering on the auction block. Sellers, George Comfort & Sons and RCG Longview, had purchased the building – located at 825 Eighth Avenue – in 2009 for just under $600 million.

http://commercialobserver.com/2012/11/worldwide-plaza-confirms-refinance-plans/

Turkey: The CBRT acts cautious but signals a policy rate cut

Turkey: The CBRT acts cautious but signals a policy rate cut

The CBRT kept its one-week repo rate (the policy rate) and o/n borrowing rate unchanged at 5.75% and 5.00%, respectively. The o/n lending rates, on the other hand, were cut by 50bp. Consequently, o/n lending rate to primary dealers was reduced to 8.5%, whereas o/n lending rate to the rest of the market was cut to 9.00%. Following Governor Başçı’s verbal intervention last week, market’s and our expectations leaned towards a rate cut on the o/n borrowing rate. Hence, CBRT acted more cautious relative to expectations. At the same time, the bank made a conditional commitment to reduce its policy rate and o/n borrowing rate by stating that “If deemed necessary for financial stability, a measured cut may be considered in the policy rate and the overnight borrowing rate in the forthcoming period”. Hence, should the CBRT decide to reduce the lower bound of the interest rate corridor, this would likely to be accompanied with a cut in the policy rate as well. The reserve option coefficients (ROC) for FX were raised by 0.1 points for tranches above 40%, whereas ROCs for gold were increased by 0.2 points for all tranches. The CBRT kept the repo auction limits unchanged at TRY 0.5-6.5bn for one-week repo and a maximum of TRY 4bn for one-month repo.

Chile: Consumer confidence slid in October, but stayed above the 50 neutral level.

Chile: Consumer confidence slid in October, but stayed above the 50 neutral level.

CHILE

Consumer confidence declined in October, but remained above the 50 neutral level. Consumer confidence slid 1.7% m/m to stand at 52.7 in October. Thus, last month was the fifth straight month of results above the 50 neutral level.

2013 Outlook Commodities Review: European Gas and LNG

2013 Outlook
Commodities Review

European Gas and LNG
Thierry Bros

Key points

■ On 8 October, the second 27.5 bcm/y Nord Stream line was launched, bringing the facility’s total capacity to 55 bcm/y (the first line was opened in November 2011). The pipeline is designed to bring greater stability to the supply of Russian gas to Europe by reducing dependence on transit countries, with which Russia has repeatedly faced serious issues over gas prices.

2013 Outlook Commodities Review: US Natural Gas

2013 Outlook
Commodities Review

US Natural Gas
Laurent Key

Key points

■ The US natural gas forward curve is, in our opinion, well priced for the start of the winter but too expensive from March to the rest of 2013. Cal 13 price forecast is $3.52/MMbtu, 40 cents below the current curve.

2013 Outlook Commodities Review: Oil

2013 Outlook
Commodities Review

Oil
Michael Wittner

Key points

■ The outlook for oil market fundamentals is neutral through 2013. With another year of sluggish economic growth expected, global demand growth is forecast at 0.8 Mb/d next year, driven by emerging markets east of Suez.

2013 Outlook Commodities Review: Copper

2013 Outlook
Commodities Review

Copper
Robin Bhar

Key points

■ At current levels, around $7,600/t, we anticipate limited downside risk as fundamentally the copper market remains tight; there is scope for prices to rise given a belief that the Chinese economy has bottomed and a rebound is expected over the coming months.

Blackstone buys troubled shopping centre after years in limbo

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/blackstone-buys-troubled-mall/story-fn9656lz-1226519908536

Blackstone buys troubled shopping centre after years in limbo

PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone has waded deeper into Australian real estate, paying $341 million for the Top Ryde City shopping centre in Sydney, a source has confirmed.

Brazil: Consensus revised down growth for next year

Florencia Vazquez, Marcelo Carvalho, Nader Nazmi, Gustavo Arruda - Market Economics
Daily Latam Spotlight | 20 Nov 2012 06:00 |

Brazil: Consensus revised down growth for next year.

BRAZIL

Local markets will be closed today due to a local holiday.

Consensus expects less growth ahead. Consensus has revised down 2012 growth to 1.52% from 1.54% in the prior week. For 2013, consensus anticipates growth below 4.0% next year (at 3.96% from 4.0%). We continue to believe that Brazil’s economy will continue to accelerate in the coming quarters, and partial data for October reinforce our view. We expect growth above 5.0% next year, thanks to monetary, fiscal and credit measures in place to spur growth.