Readings: Emerging markets, India and Commodities, I-Bank writedowns
- Economist: Kings of the wild frontier
Back in 2002, emerging-market bonds offered a yield a full ten percentage points higher than American Treasury bonds. This year, although spreads have widened from the historic lows seen in May, they have settled at a modest two percentage points or so.
Emerging-market assets make up only 2.1% of all money invested in American equity mutual funds. And soaring commodity prices will only make those emerging economies look stronger.
- BCA Research: India and Commodities
India is still a predominantly service-oriented economy - with only 15% of GDP coming from manufacturing, compared with 43% for China. This implies that India will not follow the same trajectory in commodities consumption as China did during the last 15 years, unless it can turns into another global manufacturing hub.
Speculation was rife that leading major investment banks were facing additional losses linked to complex mortgage-backed securities, while worries mounted over the health of major financial guarantors.
. . . investment banks will need to take another $10 billion in writedowns in the fourth quarter, with hits of $4 billion each at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch and a total of $2 billion at places like Wachovia and Bank of America.
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