Whither Europe: Greece’s center-right New Democracy party won 29.7 of the vote in parliamentary elections yesterday, claiming the 50-seat bonus for winning the most votes and positioning the party to form a coalition that would keep the country in the bailout-for-austerity agreement signed with European rescuers. Alex Tsipras’ Syriza party, which had promised Read More
Muted response: As the clock ticked past Facebook’s scheduled open, Nasdaq stayed mum on the technical glitches that delayed trading in the social media company’s stock by 28 minutes. The resulting chaos lasted hours, causing confusion over who had bought and sold how many shares at what prices—and leading to about $115 million in losses Read More
Long-promised downgrades are set to kick in for Italian banks, Green Mountain’s chairman loses his post to margin call and, thankfully, new Charlotte ordinance barring crowbars at large events was passed in time for Bank of America’s annual meeting. All that and more, in today’s Wall Street roundup.
Scissor season: Moody’s is expected to begin cutting ratings on banks any day now, and Bloomberg notes the consequences: Higher funding costs, curbed lending and another thorn in the side of economic growth. According to a Moody’s note last month, Italian lenders are first on the chopping block, to be followed by banks in other European countries. U.S. banks will also come in for potential downgrades, but are unlikely to see ratings changes until June. Read More
