[转贴] Wall Street rally fades after warnings on Europe

何鸿燊

By Angela Moon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rally in stocks fizzled, leaving major indexes with modest gains on Friday, as Wall Street was torn between hope that U.S. economic data signals better times ahead and fear Europe's debt crisis will engulf world economies.

About 8.9 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, higher than this year's average of 7.9 billion.

Trading was choppy due to "quadruple-witching," the expiration of four types of futures contracts -- equity options, stock index futures, stock index options and single stock futures.

After an early rally, buying dried up when rating agency Fitch warned of risk of recession in Europe.

Major U.S. stock indexes, highly correlated to the performance of the euro, slipped in tandem with that currency after Fitch revised its outlook on France's AAA rating to negative, which means a downgrade is possible in 12 to 18 months.

"Investors are tired of headlines coming out of Europe and tired of the fact that there isn't a cohesive solution. But then, it's never one way or the other so they can't just ignore them," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management in Bedfor Hills, New York.

何鸿燊

(Reuters) - The credit rating agency Fitch said on Friday it thought a comprehensive solution to the euro zone's debt crisis was beyond reach, putting six euro zone economies including Italy on watch for potential near-term downgrades.
It reaffirmed France's top-notch triple-A rating but even here said the outlook was now negative, meaning it could be downgraded within two years.

Underscoring the tensions within the bloc over a crisis that has spread relentlessly over the past two years, Italy's prime minister urged European policymakers to beware of dividing the continent with their efforts to fight its debt crisis.

In a swipe at Germany, he warned against a "short-term hunger for rigor" in some countries.

Germany has led resistance to allowing the European Central Bank to ramp up its buying of government bonds on the open market to a big enough scale to douse the crisis, but Fitch added to the pressure for just such a move.

Fitch said that following the EU summit a week ago it had concluded that "a 'comprehensive solution' to the euro zone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach."

何鸿燊

Moody's on Friday cut Belgium's credit ratings by two notches, saying "fragile sentiment" in the euro zone increases funding risks for countries with high public debt burdens.

Concerns about Belgium's economic growth prospects and its banking system, particularly potential contingent liabilities stemming from a bailout of Dexia bank, also contributed to the decision, Moody's said.

"The fragility of the sovereign debt markets (in the euro zone) is increasingly entrenched and unlikely to be reversed in the near future," Moody's said in a statement.

"It translates into heightened potential for funding stress for euro area countries with high public debt burdens and refinancing needs like Belgium," it added.

Belgium's government declined to comment on Moody's decision.

The ratings agency lowered Belgium's local- and foreign-currency government bond ratings to Aa3 from Aa1. The new rating has a negative outlook, which means another downgrade is possible in a couple of years.

Earlier on Friday, rival Fitch Ratings placed Belgium's AA-plus rating on credit watch negative, signaling a downgrade is possible within three months.

Standard & Poor's, which rates the country at AA, also has the rating on watch negative as part of a broader review of 15 euro zone countries.

何鸿燊

PARIS — To the long list of victims emerging from Europe’s financial crisis, make room for a new one: the “Entente Cordiale” between Britain and France.

A week after the British prime minister, David Cameron, refused to sign a Europe-wide pact leaders hoped would stabilize the euro zone, a cross-Channel spat has escalated into a full-blown war of words as Paris has reached a fever-pitch over the prospect that France is about to lose its triple-A credit rating, the highest available.

President Nicolas Sarkozy had already started preparing the country this week for the imminent loss of its gilt-edged status — an event made more likely after the summit meeting of European Union leaders last week, like so many before it, was widely declared a flop. But in the past two days, French officials have unleashed a diatribe suggesting that Britain, not France, is far more deserving of a downgrade.

“At this point, one would prefer to be French than British in economic terms,” the French finance minister, François Baroin, declared Friday.

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2011-12-16 19:15

鱼仔加钙

有没有谁来翻译一下大意呢