_Economy and Finance

Market Trend: New York City's Office Vacancy Decreases to 7.4% Net Absorption Positive 990,481 SF in the Quarter By Justin Sumner January 31, 2013 The New York City Office market ended the fourth quarter 2012 with a vacancy rate of 7.4%. The vacancy rate was down over the previous quarter, with net absorption totaling positive 990,481 square feet in the fourth quarter. That compares to negative 575,819 square feet in the third quarter. Vacant sublease space increased in the quarter, ending the quarter at 4,944,077 square feet. http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Market-Trend-New-York-Citys-Office-Vacancy-Decreases-to-74/145256

Economics Research | Asia Ex-Japan 01 February 2013 First Insights: China: Surprise fall in official PMI China’s official PMI dropped surprisingly to 50.4 in January from 50.6 in December (Consensus 51.0, Nomura 50.9), which casts some doubt on the strength and sustainability of the growth recovery. Sub-indexes show mixed signals. Output was down to 51.3 from 52.0, but new orders rose to 51.6 from 51.2 and while inventories of finished goods fell to 47.4 from 49.4, which suggests that the PMI may improve next month. The improvement of new orders was mostly driven by domestic demand as export orders fell. Input prices rose sharply to 57.2 from 53.3, reinforcing our view that inflation may surprise on the upside in 2013. Economists Zhiwei Zhang

Eco Analysis - Impressive German labour data (M. Martinez, A. Annenkov) Hard data once gain underlined the growing divergences between the French and German economies. German labour data proved very impressive and the unemployment rate dropped to a 20 year low in January (6.8% in January. Meanwhile, French consumption was flat in Q4 12 and details suggest that it is likely to remain sluggish in Q1 13.

Money begets money. - John Ray (1627-1705)

EUROPEAN REAL ESTATE LOAN SALES TO GATHER PACE IN 2013 30 Jan, 2013, London Against a background of continued economic uncertainty and impending regulatory changes, the pace of activity in the European real estate loan sale market will accelerate significantly over the next two years according to a new report from property consultant Cushman & Wakefield. Over the past 12 months, a total of 33 completed loan sale transactions were recorded, totaling €21.7 billion (up 146% on 2011), demonstrating that European commercial real estate (CRE) loan portfolios can be successfully traded. The market has made a strong start to 2013 and in view of the build up of activity amongst the banks and their legacy entities and their aggressive deleveraging targets, Cushman & Wakefield is forecasting over €25 billion of CRE loan portfolio and real estate-owned (REO) sales for the forthcoming year. http://www.cushwake.com/cwglobal/jsp/newsLanding.jsp?Language=EN&featuredNewsItemId=c6050000...

USA: Sabine Pass Liquefaction Prices Senior Notes Offering, USA Posted on Jan 30th, 2013 Cheniere Energy Partners said that its wholly owned subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction has priced its previously announced offering of Senior Secured Notes due 2021. http://www.lngworldnews.com/usa-sabine-pass-liquefaction-prices-senior-notes-offering-usa/

US: Markets Through the Looking Glass Julia Coronado - Market Economics US Daily Spotlight | 31 Jan 2013 01:40 | Financial markets continued their increasingly bizarre, bullish run Wednesday, with a teensy equity selloff and little change in Treasury yields, despite a surprise negative print on Q4 GDP growth. While a number of volatile drivers of Q4 GDP weakness should be smoothed through, one truly needs to be peering through the looking glass to extract a positive spin from such a negative surprise. The FOMC also looked through the Q4 economic weakness, although the Committee drew the conclusion that not enough has changed in the economic outlook for them to alter their ongoing expansion of monetary policy, and they maintained their USD 85bn pace of securities purchases. It appears that a recent expansion in leverage on the part of hedge funds has contributed to the bull run in markets that has been impervious to weaker-than-expected economic data, and, at some point, markets co...