European Stocks Dive Most In 10 Months

Stock market of Brussels (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was quite a bit of dispersion among European equity indices today (with Italy worst and Spain actually holding up - albeit down 1.4%) but the European equivalent of the S&P 500 (the BE500) dropped 2% - its biggest single-day plunge in 10 months.

Credit markets - just as in the US - have been warning of a disconnect for two weeks and today's equity dive has more than halved that divergence. European sovereigns are wider by 10-15bps. Europe's VIX is over 2 vols higher at 18.4% (its highest in a month).

European financial stocks dropped by their most in 3 months and European high-yield credit worsened by its most in 3 months. A late-day ramp made things look a little better than they had earlier with a 100 pip rally in EURUSD off earlier lows seemingly providing some help. Read more >>

The crisis in Europe and the financial aristocracy

The latest meeting of European Union (EU) finance ministers held at the start of this week once again revealed the complete subservience of the European political establishment to the European and international banking and finance cartels. (See “EU finance ministers meeting: No agreement on euro crisis”.)

Commenting on the relationship between European governments and the finance markets, British economist Phillipe Legrain writes: “So far, EU governments have decided that banks’ bondholders must be protected at all costs, preferring to impose losses on taxpayers instead—even if this stretches governments’ solvency to breaking point.”

For their part, reassured that they have the full backing of European treasuries behind them, the moguls of the finance world are undertaking their destructive work with renewed vigour.

An editorial in the German Süddeutsche Zeitung at the start of the year describes the activity of the modern breed of finance speculators:

“Just back from their two-week ski holiday, the currency dealers and finance managers have renewed their speculation against highly indebted Euro countries. Their first victim in the new year is Portugal….” Read more...

Nearly One in Five EU Residents Struggle to Cope Financially

John Chapman and Femke De Keulenaer

BRUSSELS -- In July 2009, at a time when several European economies were just coming out of recession, nearly one in five (18%) European Union residents said their household had at some time in the past year run out of money to pay ordinary bills or to buy food or other daily consumer items.

Romanians (45%) and Latvians (40%) were most likely to say they had run out of money to pay for essential goods and services in the 12 months before the survey. In a number of other eastern European countries, such as Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lithuania, about a third of respondents said their household had gone through a similar experience. However, far fewer residents reported such problems in Denmark (5%), the Netherlands (8%), Sweden and Luxembourg (both 9%), and Germany (10%).

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, slightly more than one-quarter (26%) of EU residents expected their household's financial situation to deteriorate. More than half (55%) of respondents expected that their household's financial situation would be stable and 16% anticipated that their household's financial situation would improve.

Residents in Latvia (65%) and Lithuania (58%) were the most likely to expect their household's financial situation to be worse in the 12 months following the poll. At least 4 in 10 residents expected the same in Hungary (48%), Ireland (43%), Estonia, Greece, and Romania (all 41%).

Among the least likely to be pessimistic about their household's future financial situation (that is, thinking it would deteriorate) were those in Denmark (10%), Finland and Sweden (both 15%), Luxembourg (17%), and Austria (18%). Furthermore, at the time of the survey, at least one in five respondents in Sweden (24%) and Denmark (21%) expected an improvement in their household's financial situation in the year to come.

The EU residents most likely to expect their household's financial problems to get worse in the next 12 months were the unemployed (33%), retirees (31%), and those aged 55 and older (31%). Furthermore, 42% of those residents who had been unable to pay essential bills thought their household situation would get worse, compared with 23% of those who never had that experience.

These results show the picture of how EU residents were coping with the effects of the financial crisis in July 2009. Early next year, we will publish another article on this same topic.

Eurobarometer Reports

Gallup conducts Flash Eurobarometer surveys for the European Commission. These surveys enable European policymakers to hear the voices of EU residents in the 27 member states. Gallup has worked with the Commission on more than 90 Flash Eurobarometer surveys (with close to 1.5 million interviews) on subjects from the euro to consumer protection and from higher education to the financial crisis.

Read the full report online.

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