Spain Takes Center Stage Again, Housing to Bailout

Spain is again taking the center stage, even after Greece’s Prime Minister Samaras was meeting with Angela Merkel of Germany. And now we have seen headlines on the broad tape that Spain is not engaged in active talks with the European Union on any widespread bailout package beyond broad banking support. We have seen also that the European Commission denied that deeper talks were taking place over Spain.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch noted this morning as part of its European outlook that Spain’s housing market could go the same way the housing market went in Ireland. That would be further south, by the way. Bank of America is addressing concerns that the Spanish housing market may follow Ireland, but the bank’s take is that the imbalances in Ireland were larger, and it also asserts that the Spanish bank recapitalization caters sufficiently for further price falls.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) is seeing a 1% drop in its New York ADRs to $6.77, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is seeing its ADRs down 2% in New York trading at $6.97. The iShares MSCI Spain Index (NYSEMKT: EWP) is down by 0.8% at $25.27 on the day. Even the ADRs for Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) are down 1.3% at $12.55 today.

JON C. OGG