Eco: Worst week for Wall Street in several months

Last week, the Dow Jones fell by 4.1%, along with other indices such as the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P) (-3.9%) and the Nasdaq Composite (-3.6%). This is the worst week since March for the Dow Jones and since October for the other two indices.

In Switzerland, the banks  UBS and Credit Suisse lost, respectively, 7.3% and 9.5% over the week. This sharp decline is also due to the decision by the Federal Administrative Court (FAC) to block Washington's tax assistance. The agreement with the US could be submitted to parliament. As a reminder, this agreement involved the handing over the names of UBS clients (suspected of tax fraud) to the United States.

Uncertainty is expected to reign again this week on Wall Street.. We are awaiting details of the accounts of large companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Procter & Gamble. Last week, other results (Google, IBM) had disappointed.

Furthermore, the Barack Obama's will (see: Obama against bank speculation) to limit proprietary trading activities, for Reducing banks' risk-taking is not very popular with financial markets.. The American president wants to eradicate speculation. Professionals believe this is damaging to growth.