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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By SARAH DILORENZO, Associated Press
December 6, 2011
PARIS (AP) — Global markets were muted on Tuesday after a rating agency
warned it could downgrade the debt of most eurozone countries, raising
pressure on European leaders to find a lasting solution to their crisis this
week.
The Standard & Poor's rating agency threatened late Monday to downgrade 15
countries that use the euro, including Germany and France, whose debt
ratings are considered the linchpins of the European bailout system.
The announcement stopped a several-day rally in its tracks, just hours after
the German and French leaders unveiled a series of proposals, including
punishing governments for overspending, that they hope will persuade the
European Central Bank or the International Monetary Fund to lend the
eurozone more support.
Concerns that several European countries could have trouble paying down
their debt is nothing new, of course: It lies at the heart of the crisis
strangling Europe. But an S&P downgrade could make matters worse.
Worries about high debt loads, especially in Italy, have in recent weeks
sent bond yields — the rate countries would pay when borrowing on markets
— skyrocketing. That makes it harder for those countries to pay back their
loans since the amount of interest they have to pay goes up.
Italy and Spain's yields have fallen back down in recent days on hopes of a
grand European plan against the crisis. The yields remained near monthly
lows on Tuesday, but disappointment with the summit's results this week or
an S&P downgrade could push them back up.
Stock markets and the euro quickly recovered losses they initially suffered
after the S&P ratings warning.
"The positive mood created by comments over the weekend and yesterday has
been replaced by renewed gloom," said Sebastian Galy, an analyst with
Societe General, but he added: "If the market is capable of concluding that
this is just a case of a backward-looking rating agency seeing what we
already knew, a 'blip' will be all that is felt."
Italy's 10-year bond yield edged down 0.05 of a percentage point to 5.79
percent, but France's increased 0.11 percentage point to 3.27. Germany,
which has been largely insulated from the crisis, saw its yield edge up 0.03
percentage point to 2.23 percent.
In Germany, the DAX stock index dropped 0.4 point to 6,085, while France's
CAC-40 recouped earlier losses to move up 0.1 percent to 3,205. The FTSE
index of leading British shares rose 0.2 percent to 5,5580.85.
The euro was also climbing again after a plunge, trading up 0.1 percent at $
1.3412.
The mixed sentiment came a day after a big rally, fed by President Nicolas
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposals meant to ensure
Europe never again finds itself in a crisis like the current one. But
analysts said Tuesday that investors might grow increasingly skeptical of
their plan, which lacked detail and mostly rehashed ideas that had already
been floated.
"The German and French proposals to tighten fiscal policy create a '
straitjacket,' which makes it difficult for the peripheral economies and
some of the core economies like Italy to improve debt sustainability," said
Neil MacKinnon, an analyst with VTB Capital. "Without durable economic
growth, Italy is to find it difficult to generate the tax revenues required
to reduce their debt/GDP ratio."
Earlier, Asian markets fell in the wake of the S&P announcement.
Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.4 percent to close at 8,575.16. South Korea's
Kospi fell 1 percent to 1,902.82 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.2 percent
to 18,942.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.4 percent to 4,262.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.3 percent to 2,
325.91.
Benchmark crude for January delivery rose 18 cents to $101.17 a barrel in
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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