“Better-than-expected U.S. retail sales in March were unable to sustain an early rally on Wall Street as stocks struggled to come off their worst two-week period in more than four months, with a march higher in Spanish bond yields continuing to undermine confidence,” Edward Krudy reports for Reuters.
“The Nasdaq fell sharply, weighed down by a near 3-percent drop in Apple Inc.,” Krudy reports. “A fall in sales at Mattel Inc and a decline in Google Inc shares ahead of a high stakes legal battle with Oracle Corp also hurt the Nasdaq.”
“Spanish 10-year government bond yields broke through the 6-percent mark on Monday for the first time since the beginning of December. Spain has acknowledged that it has probably tipped into its second recession since 2009,” Krudy reports. “Stocks initially bounced sharply at the open after U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in March, indicating economic growth in the first quarter did not soften as much as many had feared.”
Krudy reports, “Before Monday’s open the S&P 500 index had dropped 2.7 percent over the prior two weeks, its worst two-week slide since November, on increasing concerns about the euro-zone debt crisis and weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data… The New York Federal Reserve said the pace of manufacturing growth in New York state slowed sharply in April to its lowest level in five months.”
Read more in the full article here.
Europe is running out of resources to offset the growing mountain of unpayable debt in the EuroZone. If Spain/Italy go into default this summer, the related stock market drop world-wide will be significant. This will have profound implications for the world economy and in turn consumer confidence etc.