By Michael Baxter 26 May 2010 [0 Comments | 633 views]
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Sell in May and go away. That’s one saying we could use to explain the latest turmoil to hit the markets. The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions, that’s another one. Are we in deep trouble again, or is it all just hype?
Scanning the Internet, there is no shortage of economists who remain positive. And yet the latest bizarre twist to the financial tremors is that the Spanish banking sector is in danger. Let’s run that one past you again. During the banking crisis of 2008/09 we were told banks should have done things the Spanish way. Spain was held up as a paragon of what a good banking sector should be like. And now it seems to be suffering from just the kind of problems that descended on the US and UK in the autumn of 2008.
Libor is back in the news, that’s the rate at which banks lend to each other. It is not quite like the bad days of 2008/09, but it’s looking nasty again.
And yet much of the economic data that hit the streets yesterday was quite good. There was good news on the UK’s performance in Q1, with the ONS changing its estimate of growth. There was really good news from the US on consumers. But then again, news on the US housing market was worrisome.
Click here for: Stock markets: is it like 2008, or just a case of springtime nerves?
The pain in Spain comes out of the drains
Good news lurks in latest economic data
