Mood Swing

Seeing as the buyers that rushed into Spanish debt markets in the wake of Moody's warning on the Spanish state last week are already looking at a 25 basis gain on their investment, attention should now be turned to the list on the left. These are the individual Spanish financial institutions which will be commented upon, en masse, by the ratings agency this Thursday.

Ignoring the idiot fact that most of them no longer exist per se (having amalgamated themselves into larger entities that afford them varying degrees of self-determination within), perhaps this morning's 2 to 5 percent gain in Spanish banking stocks - resulting in a 2 percent increase in the Ibex 35 as virtually all other indexes in the world are negative - can be seen as, well, prescient.

On another front, exactly for how long can we expect FT Alphaville's Tracy Alloway to remain puzzled by all these marvels?

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