European Stocks Drop on Merkel’s Election Defeat; Clariant Sinks

[rsmith6621]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/european-stocks-drop-on-merkels-election-defeat-clariant-sinks/2011/09/05/gIQAq6NC4J_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage


By Sarah Jones, Published: September 5

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks tumbled, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index posting its biggest two-day drop since March 2009, as investors speculated that support for bailing out Europe’s indebted nations may fade.

Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG both tumbled more than 8 percent after the U.S. sued 17 lenders to recoup $196 billion and the cost of insuring against default in Europe surge to a record. Clariant AG led chemical makers lower, tumbling 16 percent after the company cut this year’s earnings forecasts.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 4 percent to 223.86 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London as all 19 industry groups declined. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures retreated 2 percent. U.S. stock markets are closed today for the Labor Day holiday.

“Europe is being hammered on the debt crisis,” said Henrik Drusebjerg, senior strategist at Nordea Bank AB in Copenhagen. “It’s Merkel getting slapped at the regional election yesterday and it’s the Finns demanding collateral for the money they’re wiring to Greece.”

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Anyone watching the German elections, can you tell me..

if there was a sane replacement for Merkel???

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. There is no replacement for Merkel

This was a state election, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic union, and her coalition partners, the Free Democrats, lost to the SDP. The next election for the Bundestag (the German parliament) is in 2013. (And the German chancellor is not directly elected but is selected by the party which commands a majority in the Bundestag; works the same as the election of a prime minister in any parliamentary democracy (where one does not vote for the prime minister but for the party, or specifically for one's local constituency candidate).

[Selatius]

3. Hopefully, the Social Democrats and the Socialists will surge in 2013.

Austerity, my ass.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. thank you for that clear explanation.

I am too woefully ignorant on how political systems work in Europe.