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'Relief Rally' Fades As Markets Study Spanish Deal

After rising sharply earlier today, European financial markets have come off their highs as investors "question the logistics of the $125 billion bailout of Spanish banks and wonder ... whether Monday's gains in financial markets were nothing but a relief rally," Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The Financial Times says "uncertainty about how the bailout would affect Madrid's funding profile crept into [Europe's bond] market."

Still, U.S. stock futures are pointing toward gains on Wall Street, Bloomberg News says, as investors speculate "that the bailout of Spain's banks will help ease the euro area's debt crisis."

And, "this Spanish deal will at least alleviate some concern as we wait another week for the Greek election," Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., told Bloomberg.

On Morning Edition, NPR's Philip Reeves said "no one's in any doubt" that there are more problems ahead in the eurozone as it digs out of its financial crisis.

NPR's Philip Reeves, reporting on 'Morning Edition'

Update at 1 p.m. ET. "Bailout Boost Quickly Turns To Rout":

The Wall Street Journal writes that "investors fled from Spanish government debt on Monday, an immediate rejection of the country's planned bank bailout by the constituency it most desperately needs to impress: the buyers of its own government bonds."

According to the Journal, "confidence in Spain is deteriorating, not rising. Behind the action is a swirl of concern about Spain, its banks and the mechanics of the bailout. ... 'The hourglass...has been turned over, but each time it's happened in Europe over the past few years there seems to be less and less sand in it,' said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.