Newsletter Issue 26^th July 2010
The Eurozone bank stress test results released on Friday after the European equity markets closed were one of the key events of the week. There continues to be debate if the tests were tough enough.

Newsletter Issue 19^th July 2010
The week ended with investors pulling back again from risk positions but it has been a week where there has been some important progress made in eliminating some of the big uncertainties hanging over the markets.

Newsletter Issue 12^th July 2010
There was a moderate easing of investor risk aversion last week leading to significant rebounds in global equity markets that lifted bond yields off their recent low.

Newsletter Issue 05^th July 2010
The risk retreat continued last week as investors shifted their concern from the funding of EC banks and EC sovereign debt issues to the prospect of a double-dip recession.

Newsletter Issue 28^th June 2010
It was a week of building risk aversion in an environment of high event risk.

Newsletter Issue 21^st June 2010
The week ended with the markets giving mixed messages regarding risk tolerance but it does appear the immediate fears of another blow up in the EC sovereign debt crisis have abated.

Newsletter Issue 14^th June 2010
Risk aversion was the theme of the week. Investors suffered from the worst bout of risk aversion since the financial crisis. The VIX closed the week just under 30% against a high of 37.38 on 6/8; mainly due to the Hungary shock.

Newsletter Issue 07^th June 2010
Last week the major themes were again risk aversion and market volatility.

Newsletter Issue 31^st May 2010
Last week was driven by risk aversion which produced volatility in equity, commodity, bond and currency markets. The Eurozone debt concerns and undermined confidence in Eurozone policy coordination and management were among the underlying investor concerns. The consequence has been a volatile EURO.

Newsletter Issue 24^th May 2010
Policy/Regulation driven risk aversion was the dominating market influence last week. The major policy shocks included 1) Germany’s unilateral ban (now to March 2011) of naked short-selling of EC government bonds and the 10 largest German financial stocks, 2) more aggressive fiscal tightening (e.g. EC, UK, New Zealand) and 3) the US financial sector reform bill.

Newsletter Issue 17^th May 2010
Last week has been an historic week. Europe along with the IMF agreed to almost an unthinkable 750B euro aid package (almost $1trillion) of loans and guarantees plus the ECB agreeing to buy government bonds and reactivating its fixed-rate term lending programs. Unilateral steps were also taken by Spain and Portugal to make additional cuts in their current budgets. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was formed in the UK under the shared leadership of Cameron and Clegg. One of the shared goals of bringing the budget deficit under control - and at the first cabinet meeting, minister salaries were cut 5%.

Newsletter Issue 10^th May 2010
Last week investors made a major retreat from risk as the Greek financial crisis turned into a Eurozone confidence crisis despite the announcement on Sunday that the Eurozone finance ministers had approved a Eurozone/IMF aid package for Greece of 110Bio Euros, including a 10Bio Euro bank stabilization fund.

Newsletter Issue 03^rd May 2010
Last week saw the Greek drama expanded into a Eurozone confidence crisis causing a sharp rise in borrowing costs as the Germans’ talk of “haircuts” for Greek bond holders, S&P downgraded Portugal, Spain and Greece to junk.