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Moody's Puts Italy's Aa2 Rating On Downgrade Review, EUR Slides, And A Bonus Report From SocGen: "How Vulnerable Is Italy?"
Trust Moody's to come up with the Friday afternoon bomb. EURUSD slides on the news, which sends the 100% correlated stocks plunging.
Full text from Moody's:
Frankfurt am Main, June 17, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service has today placed Italy's Aa2 local and foreign
currency government bond ratings on review for possible downgrade,
while affirming its short-term ratings at Prime-1.
The main drivers that prompted the rating review are:
(1) Economic growth challenges due to macroeconomic structural weaknesses
and a likely rise in interest rates over time;
(2) Implementation risks surrounding the fiscal consolidation plans that
are required to reduce Italy's stock of debt and keep it at affordable
levels; and
(3) Risks posed by changing funding conditions for European sovereigns
with high levels of debt.
Moody's review will evaluate the weight of these growing risks in light
of the country's high rating but also relative to some credit-strengthening
trends that have been observed in recent years and are expected over the
coming years, such as improved fiscal governance, lower budget
deficits and a modest economic recovery.
RATIONALE FOR REVIEW
First, the Italian economy faces growth challenges in an environment
characterized by long-term structural impediments to growth and
potentially rising interest rates. Structural economic weaknesses
-- mainly low productivity and important labour and product market
rigidities -- have been a major impediment to growth in the last
decade and continue to hinder the economy's recovery from the severe
recession it experienced in 2009. Italy has so far only recovered
a fraction of the nearly seven percentage points in GDP that it lost during
the global crisis, despite low interest rates, which are likely
to rise in the medium term. Growth prospects for the Italian economy
in the coming years will be a crucial factor that will determine the government's
revenues and the achievement of fiscal consolidation targets.
Second, there are implementation risks to the fiscal consolidation
plans that are required to reduce Italy's stock of public debt to
more affordable levels. Against a backdrop of rising interest rates
and weak economic growth, the government may find it difficult to
generate the primary surpluses that are needed to place the public debt-to-GDP
ratio and the interest burden on a solid downward trend. The adoption
of additional conservative fiscal policies may prove more difficult in
the near future because the current government's electoral support
is weakening, with the government facing challenges in gaining public
approval for its policies. For example, the government's
recent energy and water supply proposals were rejected by popular vote.
Third, the fragile market sentiment that continues to surround European
sovereigns with high levels of debt poses additional risks for Italy.
The continued stability of market demand for Italy's debt is uncertain
at current yields. Although future policy actions within the euro
area could reduce investors' concerns and stabilize funding costs,
the opposite is also possible. In any event, going forward,
investors appear likely to differentiate more among euro area sovereign
borrowers than they did prior to the financial crisis, to the disadvantage
of euro area countries with higher-than-average debt burdens,
like Italy.
FOCUS OF RATINGS REVIEW
Moody's review of Italy's sovereign rating will focus on the growth prospects
for the Italian economy in coming years, and particularly the prospects
for a removal of important structural bottlenecks that could hinder a
stronger economic recovery in the medium term. The review will
also examine the government's ability to achieve ambitious fiscal
consolidation targets and to implement further plans to generate substantial
primary surpluses in the medium term. This will include an analysis
of the vulnerability of the Italian government debt trajectory to a rise
in risk premia, as well as the options for the government to react.
The government's new fiscal plan, which is expected to be
announced shortly, will be considered during the review.
In addition, any broader developments across the euro area,
in particular with regard to the resolution of the euro area debt crisis
and its impact on funding costs, could be important determinants
of the outcome of Moody's rating review
PREVIOUS RATING ACTION AND METHODOLOGY
Moody's last rating action affecting Italy was implemented on 15 May 2002, when the rating agency upgraded Italy's Aa3 government bond ratings to Aa2 with a stable outlook. The rating action prior to that was taken on 3 July 1996, when the rating agency upgraded Italy's A1 government bond ratings to Aa3.
And now that the topic of Italy is so critical, here is SocGen's recent must read: "How Vulnerable is Italy"
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Why does anyone still listen to Moody's?
not really, expect a retrace within the hour.
Il Cavaliere ain't gonna take this shit.
He'll pull out of the NATO criminal adventure in Libya.
He would if he weren't so very dependent on Libya's lovely light sweet crude.
"Euro slides" ... reckless exageration
up 210 pips from the low and retraces 35 pips on the news, that's not a slide, barely a hiccup
;-)
Moodys Fitch and s and p just got sued by Uncle, they just got religion when the writ dropped last week.
If even Moody's recognizes the need for a downgrade, then aren't things actually way worse than we think?
Pay no attention to the time bomb in the corner...the one that just stopped ticking. Everything is fine. Greece is fixed. Didn't you hear. All better now. Serious "upside earnings revisions" coming for Greek banks. Go all in on Greek debt and Greek banks. You won't regret it.
And think of the retail sales potential in that country once the people stop throwing jars of gasoline at the cops. I mean talk about your revenue beat!
@ hugh g.....and economists and bank analysts and politicians and imf officials and world bank officials and msm and.....?
China is not happy
I'm sure their fortune cookie told them that this was coming.
***Breaking News Alert***
***This Has Been A Breaking News Alert***
bravo!
I've had a lousy day. Reading this, I feel much better.
Market is trying to ignore this story, might see some major selling in the final stretch.
Market has forgotten what it is like to be a market and is confused...but ahhhhh, not to worry, Monday is double heroine mainlining, I mean double POMO...alas, pick your squiggle in the chart and go long w/ the sure knowledge you can sell it all at a profit come Monday, Monday, Monday.
Still a little concerned bout what happens when there isn't that security blanket on the other side of the weekend...Sinclair's 4000 point drop would sound about right.
In another controversial ruling, Moody's states earth is not the center of the solar system and it is likely round. Thanks for remaining well ahead of the curve there Moody's.
Moody's breaking news: Sky is blue.
Looks like the corrupt regime is trying to get another plant in place-- Portugal finance minister Vitor Gaspar-- on the wires.
Worked as special adviser to Bank of Portugal and research at ECB.
They're digging into stem the contagion, but will fail imo.
This time it really is different.
There is no way to reverse all this mess... therefore, save time and volatility, just downgrade the whole world to junk status in one go...
... then the only way is up.
It's not like the world owes all this money to aliens.
http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
We could all just agree to go back to zero. Yeah, right.
WWIII should be quite an event.
Bullish.
Transitory
hft algos are getting hungry for more fresh shorts to devour.
Like a rash of falling knives. One trader term that one could reflect on right now is "get out of the way".
I'm doing my part to support Italy's economy by buying/consuming large quantities of Italian red wine.
Can't wait for the Euro to really shit the bed.
I'll be able to afford to drink Barolo or Brunello every night!
Oh noez! 'Greece fixed', well not really but whatever, good enough for the algo's....now its on to ITALY'S troubles!
Too bad Moody's and S&P both totaly missed warning of the complete melt down in 2008....but who coulda seen THAT coming? Easier to just warn of Greek and Italian banks.
Greece is fixed! Greece is not fixed!! Greece is fixed!
Fuck me Dog. Oh look...a unicorn that "nobody saw coming". I'm going over there to mount it now....
Nobody saw it comin! Yowza!
Now that's a spicy meatball!
Mario and Luigi are our only hope now!
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
The promise given was a necessity of the past, the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Here's the problem with fiscal plans for every country that has a corrupt regime at the helm that serve only the insolvent financial system: you can't strip economic opportunity and individual rights from the people and expect them to take more cuts to what the governments owe them-- this is why policymakers should have focused on fixing the real economy instead of funneling everything to the insolvent financial institutions-- it doesn't work-- not even in a pyramid scheme does that work as you can't build a pyramid on the broken backs of the peasantry--it's unstable.
Half an hour before the end of the week? Smells like a bear trap to me - there'll be some positive bullshit news out of Greece over the weekend and futures will open Sunday night 0.5% higher...
Or 1.5% lower. STEP RIGHT UP, ladies and gentlemen! Place ya BETS!
Possibly, but does it matter what they come out with on SUN? It's a plan, much like last year they had a plan, and much like last year have failed to implement it successfully.
The market may not price this reality in because it's run by the same insolvent financial institutions that need Greece (now Italy and soon to be the rest of EU) to take on more debt to keep the farce running.
2012 will see the same tough rhetoric out of the troika on how Greece needs to make severe cuts in order to serve their banking masters and it will be near impossible to implement such a plan as people will just say 'fuck off EU and your banking masters' and strike-- strikes and discontent to where a country is paralyzed by resentment is far worse than deflation-- that kind of shit topples regimes.
Is this some kind of retaliation against the Italian people who voted overwhelmingly to phase out nuclear energy?
in what world 51% of voters is overwhelmingly anything? (94% of 55% or whatever)
It's probably not relevant at all. It's not as if that many people could give a rat's ass about Italy anyway. Besides, most of us will be dead within the next six months.
awesome, sell long term vol then
It's not just Italy. If Unicredit gets dragged into this, and I don't see why not, things may get really nasty.
The report from Socgen is pretty old. Just saying.
Still thnx.
If stocks are 100% correlated to the EUR than I am assured I am more than content being short because this is all going to end in tears.
At least Italy isn't being investigated by the porn-watching SEC.
Dow just shot up 40 points in 3 minutes..haha
It must be that compression. Yea, Thats it.
They brought out the heavy guns today. So exciting to watch!
Don't get too distracted crossing the street. My condolences.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mysterious-mountain-lion-rb-512650240.html?x=0&.v=4&.pf=college-education&mod=pf-college-education
Greece is the appetizer. Many courses to come. Italy won't even be the main course when all is said and done. Save room for desert.
Does anybody know how I can send an email or get in touch with TD?
This is worse then a bad comedy. What a crock of shit this planet is.
.
CROX +.38
Third world's wet dreams.
It is the aim at Italy's gold.
This is the only country from PIIGS holding a huge amount of gold.
Just imagine in the very near future a Friday like this with no POMO (or in this case) or double POMO on Monday...gee, wonder what will happen?
BTW - what a strange coincidence to have a double POMO on the Monday following triple withching Friday??? Who'd a thunk something like that would just happen? Serendipity?
Berlusconi can always ask Ruby for some advise how to suck things up
Nice timing. Is everyone in on the scam?
No problem. China will buy euro's. They have to.
Moodys has new found standing to pass judgement on Italy, because if the rumors of a Massive SEC fruad lawsuit are true, they know exACtly what imminent bankruptcy looks like.
Disclosure: Been short Moody's since 2006.
Moodys....?
Moodys..?
Where have I heard that name before...???
Aint those the ones that.....
Oh never mind,it's not important.
Tha anglo-saxon rating agencies are caught up in the final game of domino ... in this interconnected world of debt, they can't downgrade a nation, causing a finacial fallout, without impacting other countries ... they are busy with Europe, but the greatest risk (certainty at this point) is contagion to the bankrupt US and UK ... that will happen and when that happens the problem will not be Europe any longer ...
In the meanwhile, as the UsUk agencies keep people looking at Europe, other rating agencies know where the real problem is:
http://www.dagongcredit.com/dagongweb/english/pr/show.php?id=92&table=we...
Let's see what happens this fall.
I started a credit rating agency that is about to crush Moody's, Standard & Poor or Fitch.
It is called Sharts, and it is technically and resource superior to any rating agency that has ever been devised previously, and more importantly, fundamentally honest and to the point.
Our first assessment per AP:
3 million shares of GLD across the tape at 17:00. Deep pockets.
All the ratings agencies lie anyway, so you can't tell if they're now trying to catching up, or just working in concert to pressure sovereigns. I think I read this am a lawsuit is coming their way.
Ridiculous.
Italy only needs to raise tax on capital to 20-25% (in line with the rest of europe) instead of today's 12%, and everything will be fine. If there is one country on this planet that will make it, that's Italy.
you clearly work for the swiss =)
Italy is that silent member of the PIIGS that they don't talk about, becaush they are to big.
Italy's economy is solid. The personal income / debt ratio is among best in the world.
Moody's is full of shit.
It's apparent how Moody's is part of an American propaganda effort to try and salvage the USD come hell or high water.
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