Business

Following up to our earlier preview of today's critical ECB announcement, here is Bloomberg macro commentator Tanvir Sundhu, who says not to sweat what Draghi says today as the ECB will be able to avoid a "taper tantrum" (for now) and as a result the risk isn’t that the ECB is going to set off a sustained bond bear market, but - due to the shortage of monetizable assets - "it’s that it might find itself low on ammunition if the economy or prices suddenly turn south."

From Sundhu's latest Macro View:

Deutsche Bank’s Q3 2017 revenues were €6.78 billion, below market expectations of €6.88 billion. The share price fell 2.7% shortly after the European market open. The problem – like the previous quarter - was a bigger-than-expected drop in trading revenues. Trading revenue was down 30% year-on-year to €1.512 billion versus €2.162 billion in Q2 2017.

Today's ECB meeting is expected to be one of the most important in recent years: Mario Draghi has signaled, and is widely expected to announce a blueprint of what the central bank's QE tapering will look like beyond 2017, and while no actual tightening will be implemented - either via rates of asset purchases - the ECB is expected to announce it will cut its €60bn/month bond purchases in roughly half starting in January 2018 and lasting for the next 9-15 months.

Courtesy of RanSquawk, here are the key parameters of Thursday's meeting:

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, a key engine of the kingdom’s plan to diversify the economy, on Wednesday laid out new targets for growth, saying it aims to nearly double the value of assets it manages to around $400 billion by 2020. That sum includes the expected proceeds from the planned initial public offering of up to 5% of state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco. The listing, slated for next year, could raise as much as $100 billion, Saudi officials have said.

In “Mad Scramble for Lithium Mines From Congo to Cornwall”, Bloomberg puts some colour on current conditions in the red hot sub-sector.