PrefBlog

Here’s a cheerful prediction from Italy:

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti warned that Spain could reignite the European debt crisis as euro-area ministers this week prepare a deal to strengthen the region’s financial firewall.

Monti pointed to Spain’s struggle to control its finances ahead of a finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen starting on March 30, where officials will seek agreement to raise a 500 billion-euro ($664 billion) ceiling on bailout funding.

.“It doesn’t take much to recreate risks of contagion,” Monti said during the weekend at a conference in Cernobbio, Italy. Days after his Cabinet approved a bill to overhaul Italy’s labor laws, Monti praised Spain’s efforts to loosen work regulations while advising it to focus on cutting the national budget. Spain “hasn’t paid enough attention to its public accounts,” he said.

There are rumours that the acronym “HST” will soon stand for Hot Sex Tax.

It was a positive day overall for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums down 6bp, FixedResets up 14bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 20bp. Sun Life and Manulife dominated the positive side of a relatively lengthy Performance Highlights table. Volume was almost average.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.