Highly volatile stock markets In the first three months of 2012, the international financial markets experienced the best start to any year since 1998. However, the renewed flare-up of the debt crisis in the eurozone and growing fears about the weakening of international economic growth prompted substantial price losses in the months that followed.Only the Dow Jones Industrial managed to achieve slight gains in a year-to-year comparison.
An agreement concerning a EUR 130 billion stimulus package for the eurozone and the reduction of the base rate by the European Central Bank caused equity markets around the world to recover significantly towards the end of the second quarter. However, price trends on the international stock exchanges remained volatile in the first few weeks of Q3 2012, driven by uncertainty surrounding the financial situation in Spain, Portugal and Greece.
