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EUROPE REELS amid investor fears. ?Markets got a brief break from the selling after the U.S. Labor ?

By Glenn Reynolds

EUROPE REELS amid investor fears. “Markets got a brief break from the selling after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 9.7%, but investors were ultimately confused by the figures, which also showed that the world’s largest economy continued shedding jobs in January. . . . Behind the anxiety over Europe’s debt problems are recent gyrations in the market for insurance-like contracts called credit-default swaps. On Friday, the cost of insuring against a default by Greece, Portugal and Spain using such contracts shot to record levels before abruptly reversing course ahead of the U.S. data. Prices of these countries’ government bonds ? especially bonds maturing in a few years ? dropped as banks and other investors continued to scale back their exposure to governments with heavy budget deficits.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 06, 2010 (boomark / email).