Here is the latest statement out…

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“Just out from Bloomberg:

• SPAIN AGREES TO SEEK BANK BAILOUT, EL PAIS REPORTS
• IMF WILL SUPERVISE SPAIN BANK RESCUE PLAN, EL PAIS SAYS

And the funniest:

• SPAIN RESCUE DOESN’T CARRY ECONOMIC POLICY CONDITIONS: MUNDO

So Spain has shockingly agreed to a bank bailout without conditions. Has Germany? The chips will commence falling, where they may, shortly. In the meantime, we are days from finding out just what Germany thinks when it has to ratify (that’s right, the ESM has still not been ratified by the one country which will fund the Spanish bailout) a Spanish bank bailout. Without conditions.

From El Pais: ”

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“SANTA MARGHERITA LIGURE/VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Italy must push on with reforms to resolve its economic crisis, the industry minister said on Saturday, expressing disappointment at the euro zone’s efforts to resolve the wider sovereign debt troubles plaguing the bloc.

Speaking at two conferences in northern Italy, Industry Minister Corrado Passera and Bank of Italy governor Ignazio Visco said the crisis in Italy was not over.

“The situation is not like it was at the end of last year, when there was an emergency, but remains very critical,” Passera told a conference of young entrepreneurs on the Italian riviera.

“Europe was more disappointing than we expected, it was less capable of tackling a relatively minor problem such as Greece,” the former banker said.”

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Eurozone leaders are in discussions this afternoon to provide as much as $125 billion to bailout Spain, the Wall Street Journal’s Gabriele Steinhauser reports.

Click here for updates > 

The meeting for Spain and the greater Eurozone has been underway in Brussels for about an hour….
Developing….

Top al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al Libi is dead via @NewYorkPost 

Wading into the debate over stop-and-frisk police tactics, Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo plans to ask legislators on Monday for a change in New York State law that would drastically reduce the number of people who could be arrested for marijuana possession as a result of police stops.

READ THE REST AT NYTIMES.COM CLICK HERE 

Asian stocks slid on Monday as disappointing U.S. jobs data added to concerns over a slowing Chinese economy and a deepening euro zone debt crisis.

The flight from risk also weighed on bonds, with the benchmark Japanese government bond yield dropping to a nine-year low. The 10-year JGB yield fell 2 basis points to 0.790 percent, its lowest level since July 2003.

The FTSE CNBC Asia 100 Index [.FTFCNBCA  5583.19    -75.04  (-1.33%)], which measures markets across Asia, slipped 0.6 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei average [.N225  8262.82    -177.43  (-2.1%)] shed 1.9 percent at the open to 8,278.65, while the broader Topix shed 1.9 percent to 695.67.

Nomura shares tumbled 4 percent after it replaced the head of institutional sales at its core securities unit, following an escalating investigation by regulators into its suspected role in insider trading.

Nintendo fell 1.5 percent despite it announcing its much anticipated successor to its Wii games console, the Wii U, will come with an online social network, dubbed Miiverse, to connect gamers.

Seoul shares tanked 2.8 percent at the open, down for a fourth straight session after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data aggravated fears of a global economic slowdown.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) [.KS11  1792.12    -42.39  (-2.31%)   ] fell 51.67 points to 1,783.5 points.

READ THE REST HERE AT CNBC.COM

Flight to safety—,lowest yield since July 2003.

via @CNBC On Twitter

This is similar to what happened in the U.S. just as our debacle unfolded. Perhaps, God forbid, a $LEH event horizon is near….

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With the new design of the site, the news and blogger network sections have seen a dramatic boost in traffic. I set a quota for traffic views on a daily basis. Since the redesign, we’ve been blowing past estimates.

Have a look.

Final April reading was 49.3

No joke Z.H. seems to have pulled the story from the German Press….perhaps their bulldog edition.

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Fun times for equities…..

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Fun times with $FB…no ?

TOKYO (Reuters) – Fitch cut Japan’s sovereign credit status on Tuesday to the lowest level among global ratings agencies as a political stalemate dims the chance that the country can curb its snowballing debt.

Fitch Ratings cut Japan’s long-term foreign currency rating by two levels to A plus from AA. It cut the more important local currency rating by one notch to A plus from AA minus. Both were given a negative outlook.

Fitch warned that further downgrades were possible unless the government takes new fiscal policy measures to stabilise public finances and its ratio of debt to gross domestic product.

“The downgrades and negative outlooks reflect growing risks for Japan’s sovereign credit profile as a result of high and rising public debt ratios,” Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereigns at Fitch said in a statement.

“The country’s fiscal consolidation plan looks leisurely, relative even to other fiscally challenged high-income countries, and implementation is subject to political risk.”

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s government spokesman says German Chancellor Angela Merkel has floated the idea that the country hold a referendum on the euro alongside national elections next month.

Dimitris Tsiodras said in a statement Friday that Merkel aired the proposal during a phone call with Greek President Karolos Papoulias earlier in the day.

The statement said that such a project was “obviously” outside the jurisdiction of the Greek caretaker government appointed this week.

Greece is set to hold elections on June 17, after a previous vote on May 6 produced a hung Parliament.

Read here:

Shares of Zynga halted; stock down about 13% –@CNBC

HAHAHA it happens again.

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Facebook close to pricing at $38 a share, highest value of any US company at IPO

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/facebook_close_to_pricing_ipo_at_1IyrtqXxbrpwjsZFEUZoCM#ixzz1v9gmzMLz

via TMZ.com

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