Obama Cheered But Markets Fall in Europe

Pessimistic Greek economic data continues to plague European markets.

A protester holds up the national flags of the "PIGS" countries (an acronym for the economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) outside the Greek parliament on Nov. 7 in Athens, Greece. Milo Bicanski/Getty Images

It probably wasn’t President Barack Obama’s fault. Europeans generally favored him over Republican challenger Mitt Romney and cheered his re-election. Nonetheless, markets fell last week in Europe, due to concerns about Greece and some very poor unemployment data.

The European Central Bank (ECB) also didn’t help. At its monthly meeting, President Mario Draghi downgraded the economic outlook for the Eurozone, but did not provide further monetary easing.

As a consequence, the EURO STOXX Index 50 points, or 2.6 percent, to 2,479 and the euro dropped 0.8 percent to $1.2728. As usual, financial stocks and the Spanish market lagged, falling 4.4 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.