Tuesday, May 4, 2010

It's a Crisis of the PIIGS, Not Just Greece

That's the verdict from markets, overnight.

The IMF/EU bluff does not appear to be calming markets. WSJ has the details:
...investors were focused on Europe, where worries about sovereign debt weighed on European equities and sent the euro 0.5% lower. The unease stemmed from concerns over Greece's aid package and speculation over the possibility of another debt downgrade for Spain. The Stoxx Europe 600 slid 1% in late morning trade.

The Greece aid package "as it now stands is certainly to be welcomed and may have assuaged market concerns had it been announced three to four months ago," said Michael Hart, a strategist at Citi. "But at this point, the situation has developed from a mere Greece-crisis into a full blown euro-zone sovereign crisis. And European policy makers continue to trail events in formulating their response," he said.

"Talk about Spain is weighing on the market, given that banks would be most exposed since they hold government bonds," said a London-based analyst, referring to what he said was market speculation that Spain could ask for an aid package. "Any news on sovereign debt reflects directly on bank stocks."

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