The most indebted countries of the Eurozone are worth less than a bite of the Apple of Cupertino. Already last month the capitalization of Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), on Wall Street it had reached an amount equal to approx a bailout of Greece and 8 Salva-Italia reforms. Today the parent company of iPhones worth 586 billion dollars and experts predict it will reach 643 billion in the next 12 months.
However, what is astounding is the comparison with the European countries most affected by the debt crisis. Bloomberg analysts have estimated that 500 state-owned companies from Spain, Portugal and Greece combined are worth about $590 billion. There is very little left for Apple to overtake them and at that point the overtaking will be sensational: an action by Apple will undermine the three most shaky European countries with a backlash.
And while the rise of Apple on Wall Street continues to mark new all-time highs, the bond market of the 3 European countries shows more and more signs of concern. The spread between 10-year Spanish Bonos and German Bunds continues to hover above the 400 basis point mark, to 409 bps – a level it hasn't seen since last November. The same goes for the differential of Portugal, with Bonos yields exceeding Germany's by more than 10%. Not to mention Greece whose ten-year bond has a yield of 21,7%, 20% more than the Bund and whose markets and the European Union are waiting for early elections scheduled for May 6.
The stock markets are no different. L'Ibex index of 35 largest Spanish companies, which has lost 36% since the beginning of 2010, yesterday it reached a minimum value that it hadn't touched for over 3 years. This morning the square of Lisbon loses more than 2%, due to the collapse of the banking sector on the Stock Exchange following the announcement of the capital increase of the largest bank in the country – Banco Espiritu Santo, and since the beginning of 2010 it has lost 37%. Similarly the Athens Square index lost more than 50% in one year.
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