Italy Drags Us Down

The stock market looks to open sharply lower today. Through Thursday, the S&P 500 was having a nice rally but concerns about Europe have again pushed equity prices lower.

Now traders are worried about the financial condition of Italy. Reuters notes that the cost of insuring Italian debt has risen to a five-year high. Now, some Italian politicians are blaming “speculators” which is a near-universal sign that it’s all the politicians’ fault.

We’re also at the start of the second-quarter earnings season. Alcoa ($AA) will be the first major company to report earnings when it reports after today’s close. The company has a good shot of reporting a doubling of its profit.

Posted by on July 11th, 2011 at 9:07 am


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