European debt crisis

A "modest contagion" for financial stocks "should allow domestically focused financial stocks to stabilize in the coming weeks," despite the JPMorgan Chase trading mess and the "deteriorating conditions in Europe, according to KBW analyst Fred Cannon.

Oil prices hovered below $93 a barrel Friday in Asia, pausing after the latest twists in Europe's debt crisis triggered a sharp two-week sell-off. Crude has plunged about 13% over the past two weeks.

Hey, Wall Street? Chicken Little called. She says you need to stop overreacting to JPMorgan Chase's $2 billion trading loss. I mean, it's not as if the sky were falling. For a bank this big, $2 billion? It's practically rounding error.

Markets dipped Monday after official data confirmed that Spain is back in its second recession in three years. Investors had initially bid up stocks on hopes that the Fed would provide more stimulus to the U.S. economy.

2011 was the most profitable year in General Motors' history. Thanks in large part to the $50 billion government-assisted restructuring it received, GM's U.S. operation is in good shape. So is it ready to fully pay back Washington now? Well, that depends on Europe.

About a month ago, the Germany government sold $5 billion worth of Eurobonds that paid an average interest rate of -- get this -- negative 0.0122%. That's right: These bonds are guaranteed to lose value. So why did they sell? In a word, it's all about risk.

On Friday, it looked like this week would be ugly. Standard & Poor's had just downgraded the credit ratings of France and several other E.U. countries, the latest domino to fall in Europe's slow-motion economic train wreck. But at least in the U.S., the stock market has shrugged off that news.

Stock markets in Europe traded in fairly narrow ranges Monday as Germany's leader warned that Greece may not get its next batch of bailout cash. Chinese shares surged after authorities pledged to increase bank lending to entrepreneurs. Europe's stumbling efforts to get a handle on its debt crisis remains the focus of interest in the markets.

By most indications, the U.S. economy is recovering fairly well for the time being. But across the Pond in Europe, another story is unfolding that has the stock market worried -- and it should have your attention, too.

With all the varied estimations of the chances that the U.S. is headed into a new recession, someone must have gotten it right ... right? But whom?