Terrain miné : les marchés boursiers continuent leur descente

Les deux derniers jours n’ont pas vu une inversion de tendance dans l’évolution des marchés boursiers, alors que les informations de la presse ont tendu à s’écarter de ce sujet et que les autorités politiques ne se sont guère signalées par une intervention ou l’autre (sauf une déclaration de Jean-Claude Trichet annonçant assez curieusement que les marchés revenaient “à la normale”). Ce matin, le Financial Times observait :

«Asian stocks slumped on Thursday, pushing Japan’s Nikkei to 8-month lows, while the yen held firm, as appetite for risky assets waned amid persistent fears about a global credit squeeze.

»Asian stocks slumped on Thursday, pushing Japan’s Nikkei to 8-month lows, while the yen held firm, as appetite for risky assets waned amid persistent fears about a global credit squeeze.

»With no signs of credit jitters letting up, some central banks in the region stepped in again to reassure credit markets. Australia added a larger-than-usual amount of $2.5bn in cash to the banking system.

»In the latest scare, investors worry that Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender, could face bankruptcy if liquidity worsens after a Merrill Lynch analyst flagged that possibility.

»Markets around the world have been hammered by a constant stream of news about problems in banks and funds exposed to risky investment in US mortgage and asset-backed markets.

»”The subprime issue will probably take months to play out so trading is going to be very nervous for a while,” said Eric Betts, equities strategist at Nomura Australia. ”Anyone who has a financial interest, like a bank or a fund, may have some unexploded mines waiting to go off, so people are bailing out ahead of time.”»

L’expression de “terrain miné” semble décrire parfaitement la situation telle que les spécialistes financiers la considèrent. Hier matin, le même Financial Times rapportait cette remarque de Drew Matus, economiste de Lehman Brothers: «We are in a minefield. No one knows where the mines are planted and we are just trying to stumble through it.»

Mis en ligne le 16 août 2007 à 07H23