STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 21 May 2012

[Ghost Dog]

19. Schaeuble Seeks Crisis Resolution With France’s Moscovici

... German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will for the first time discuss the 17-nation currency with his newly installed French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, in Berlin today as European Union leaders prepare for a summit meeting in Brussels on May 23. After three shorter meetings in the last week, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will seek to balance France’s desire to jump-start growth with Germany’s preference for spending cuts.

The euro has lost 3.5 percent against the U.S. dollar this month and almost $4 trillion has been wiped from equity markets amid concerns over Greece. Schaeuble said May 18 the turmoil could last another two years. Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds climbed to close at 6.27 percent last week. That figure slid to 6.26 percent at 10:56 a.m. Madrid time, while the euro traded down 0.01 percent to $1.2769 in Frankfurt.

President Barack Obama joined G-8 leaders including Hollande and Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron in embracing a renewed focus on growth, underlining the isolation of Merkel, who maintained resistance to new spending. At the president’s Camp David retreat in Maryland, G-8 leaders said in their final statement that “the right measures are not the same for each of us.”

As EU leaders prepare for their informal dinner, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Liberation that no potential solutions involving Greece should be rejected. Leaders shouldn’t rule out measures such as state borrowing from the European Central Bank, he said...

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-20/euro-crisis-resolution-sought-by-france-germany-following-g-8.html