Markets

Markets took a nose dive today with the root cause seeming to stem from poor economic data and problems in europe.  A foreign exchange transaction rattled investors in europe: it was observed that there was a central bank liquidity swap of 500 million dollars late yesterday, meaning a bank had urgent need for 500 million dollars cash.  Banks being broke is no big surprise in europe these days but it seems at least one bank in europe is on the verge of collapse.  Just a little bit ago right after market close today there was another such transaction for 200 million in swiss francs.  While i'm still at a loss to explain exactly what these central bank liquidity swaps really mean in the long run or why it is so necessary to have 500 or 200 million extra cash on hand, i know that it doesn't indicate bank healthiness.  Since the 500 mil helped startle the markets yesterday, I predict the 200 will do the same thing tomorrow.  I can't think of any informative economic data that comes out tomorrow either so there should be nothing to be joyful about.  It's all very pessimistic, but the truth hurts sometimes.