EU's Rigged Stress Tests Spare the Public PIIGS (NBG, AIB, IRE, STD, DB, BCS)

After watching and looking through the EU Stress Test that was due today, we are so far seeing a rally in all the banks we had mentioned earlier as banks to watch.  Only 7 of 91 banks failed the Stress Tests.  More importantly, we are seeing gains in the major banks in the land of PIIGS.  We are looking at National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG), Allied Irish Banks plc (NYSE: AIB), The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE), Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS).

The banks that we have seen as having failed are as follows:

• Germany’s Hypo RE;
• Greek bank ATEBank.
• Spain’s Banca Civica;
• Spain’s Espiga;
• Spain’s Unim;
• Spain’s Diada;
• Spain’s Cajasur;

The capital shortfall in this stress test appears to come to a mere $3.5 billion per a CNBC figure, which is hardly even enough to be a line-item in the grand scheme of things.  The markets have either overemphasized the importance of the stress tests, or the stress tests were set at levels that were far too watered down for a true recessionary economy in The New Normal.

National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) is now up 0.35% at $2.84 and this is now up over 30% from the lows of $2.11.

Allied Irish Banks plc (NYSE: AIB) is now up 2% at $2.49 and this is now up almost 20% from the recent low of $2.06.

The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) is up 1.5% at $3.99 and is up over 25% from the recent low of $3.10.

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) in Spain is currently seeing its ADR down 0.8% at $12.86, up well over 40% from its 52-week low of $8.65.

Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) in Germany is down almost 1% at $63.65 and this is still up close to 20% from the $54.14 low of the last year.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is down 0.3% at $18.61 pr ADR versus a 52-week range of $15.36 to $25.68.

CEBS STATEMENT

JON C. OGG