A French newspaper reported today that Standard & Poor’s is downgrading the credit ratings of five euro nations. Italy, Spain and Portugal will be downgraded by two notches while France and Austria will take a one notch hit. The newspaper, Les Echos, also noted that Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg were spared by S&P’s [...]
Joint talks between Greece and its creditors broke down on Friday with Greece warning of a potentially catastrophic results if a bond swap deal isn’t done in the very near future. This bond swap deal would see creditors voluntarily give up their promised returns which will in turn help Greece slash its debt to more [...]
Consumer sentiment rose last month and hit the highest levels in eight months according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index. Americans are feeling better about the jobs market after the jobs market started turning around in December. 34% of consumers said they had heard about recent jobs gains, up from December’s 21%. [...]