Somehow markets are flat despite Spain essentially declaring it is being shut out of capital markets thanks to high coupons demanded by potential bond investors. So, Spain isn't broke (yet), but it may be at a point of no return. Hopefully, this will spur the European Central Bank into action, as estimates have the Spanish banking sector in need of 40 billion to 90 billion euros to stay afloat. Bankia recently received a 19 billion euro lifeline from the Spanish government, while the CEO of Banco Santander
Releasing Greece from the eurozone is manageable, but if the dominoes start to fall for Spain and Italy, the long-term survival of the currency and the great European experiment is in jeopardy.
That said, let's take a closer look at the three major indexes and drill down on three stocks soaring above the rest of the market.
Index |
Gain/Loss |
Gain/Loss % |
Intraday Value |
---|---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average |
(26.95) |
(0.22%) |
12,091.62 |
Nasdaq |
7.33 |
0.27% |
2,754.81 |
S&P 500 |
(0.53) |
(0.04%) |
1,277.51 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
All three major indexes are slightly up as of this writing, but it wouldn't take much to push them into negative territory. Energy is leading the charge after a taking a beating yesterday. Dow component Caterpillar is up nearly 1%, but its new partner for developing natural-gas engines, Westport Innovations
And speaking of alternative fuel sources, Amyris
The final notable mover today is BioSante
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