Waiting for winter to bite

Europe is continuing to scare investors. The end of November and the beginning of December resembled previous months - the tense situation was only eased by small bounces resulting from good economic data, while prices remained extremely low on the trading floors. Hopes for a more optimistic 2012 were supposed to be brought about by the EU summit of December 8th-9th. Unfortunately, it failed to accomplish this feat. Instead, it was actually the Christmas mood that was responsible for the calm on the financial markets. Investors waited anxiously for some concrete decisions to be taken (e.g. the green light to issue common eurobonds for euro countries, and stronger action from the European Central Bank in buying the bonds of most indebted countries from the market), but all they got were the huge loans granted to European banks by the ECB (nearly EUR 500 bln before Christmas). Meanwhile, ratings agencies continue to lower their ratings (such as in the case of France), while economists ar