The Ibex tumbled 6% in its worst week since the start of the war

No good intentions, no firm defense of the system, no billionaire bailouts. Nothing can stop it severe crisis of confidence unleashed this week on the banking sector, which at dawn on Thursday was experiencing a new chapter with the decision of eleven major US banks to bail out First Republic Bank with an injection of 30,000 million dollars.

The operation, along with central banks’ determination to act “if necessary”, appeared to have managed to calm investors’ spirits somewhat. Nothing is further from the truth. Rumors about disagreements between Credit Suisse and UBS for a possible merger, together with extraordinary meeting of the ECB Council analyze the crisis, launched yesterday a a new wave of sales which ended with a decline of 1.5% in the main European markets. In Spain, the Ibex-35 fell 1.92% to 8,719 points, accumulating losses of 6% for the week, the worst in a year coinciding with the first moments of the war in Ukraine. Banks are repeated as the main ones victims of the session, with losses of 4.6% for Santander, 3.5% for BBVA, 3.4% for Sabadell and more than 2% for Bankinter and CaixaBank. Unicaja, for its part, lost 1.7 percent. Since the collapse of SVB – whose parent company officially filed for bankruptcy yesterday – six entities have lost 26,000 million euros on the stock market. Prices have been favorable and Sabadell (0.98 euros) has the worst unemployment with a drop of 24% since the end of March 9, when the contagion panic began.

doubts still exist

One of the big problems is what, after the firm intention of ECB raise Interest rates and, at the same time, inject liquidity if needed, there are many doubts as to whether the organism will be able to ‘sip’ and ‘blow’ at the same time without consequences. In addition, no one doubts that the underlying problems of more banks will be exposed in the coming weeks. Namely, there are already data that show the concern of the subjects themselves about possible infection. In just a few days – even if it is only a preventive measure – the American entities launched liquidity requirements to the Federal Reserve (Fed) through the agency’s normal window. Specifically, they asked Fr $153 billion this week alone.

To give you an idea of ​​the size, the previous week the figure was 4.580 million. It is the highest value of all timewhich also exceeds the 111,000 million reached during the 2008 financial crisis, which set the previous record. “We have to stop this now”, respected manager Bill Ackman assured yesterday. A statement that reflects the general sentiment of the market, which once again made it clear that it needs more strength and, perhaps, a change in monetary policy.