Spanish and Italian bond yields climb but, so far, short of the danger zone

While the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury has moved up to 2.49% from 1.93% a month ago, the yield on the Spanish 10-yer government bond has climbed 0.31 percentage points this week to 4.9%. The yield on the Italian 10-year bond has climbed to 4.6%.
That’s indeed a big move higher in a short time but it leaves bond yields for Spain and Italy a long way below the danger zone of 6% and above

ECB tosses markets a token rate cut–and European markets aren’t impressed

The European Central Bank did cut its benchmark interest rate today to 0.5% from 0.75%. European financial markets haven’t been especially impressed—no one expects a 25 basis point cut to do much of anything for sagging economic growth. The biggest move came in the euro, which fell 0.9% against the dollar on news that the bank was considering a negative interest rate on deposits banks keep with the ECB.

Soaring unemployment doesn’t make an ECB rate cut next week a lock

Government numbers released this morning show that Spain’s unemployment rate hit 27% in the first quarter of 2013. The 6.2 million unemployed is the highest on record. Spain’s economy contracted by 1.9% in 2012 and is projected to shrink by another 1.6% in 2013. The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to respond to the slowdown and the increase in unemployment by introducing another round of government budget cuts tomorrow