Faced with the financial storm that is affecting Italy and Spain, some think that we are on the verge of din the final attack of speculation on two Eurozone countries particularly exposed to the eyes of the markets. The absence of decisive bulwarks against the continuous increase in the spread between Italian and Spanish government bonds and German Bunds, as a result of the postponement of the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court of Germany on the legitimacy of the bailout fund, the distrust of the markets on Europe's ability to respond to the crisis is growing, putting in place unlimited means against speculation.
Its the weakness of the European response is at the origin of mistrust which meanders in the markets and feeds the dreams of speculation of Anglo-Saxon origin (merchant banks, investment banks, hedge funds) of giving the final push to the single currency. This is the reason for the crisis which is also affecting the government bonds of Italy and Spain in these hours and which is forcing the two countries – based on different realities, but united by financial contagion – to pay ever higher returns to investors on their Bonds.
The consequence of this tension which reigns on the markets and which affects the two Mediterranean countries is the progressive widening of the gap between their government bonds and those of Germany: in these hours the Btp-Bund spread crossed the psychological threshold of 500 basis points, while the Spanish spread even surpassed 600.
In parallel with the government bond crisis, the day marks the collapse of bank bonds, in whose portfolio there is a large share of government bonds. Virtually all Italian banks are affected by this storm, with peaks (as in the case of the Bper) of 8%, but the most famous banks such as Unicredit, Mediobanca and Intesa Sanpaolo are also paying the price, as well as deeply rooted financial groups on international markets such as Generali. It remains to be seen whether the conclusions of the Eurogroup, which has given go-ahead for aid to Spanish banks, they will be able to give some fresh air, in the final part of the Stock Exchange session, also to the troubled Italian banks.
