Sense of realism finally hits stock markets

After all the worrying developments from the Middle East, rising inflation concerns both here and in China, oil above $100 a barrel, a bloated U.S. Deficit, Eurozone debt worries and weakening consumer sentiment it was always a surprise that the FTSE was still above 6,000 and the S&P 500 hit a level double its March 2009 low last week. The Ftse 100 fell 64  points today to 6,019 with the big banks falling nearly 4% over worries about European debt. U.S. markets were closed due to President's day.

The Contrarian Investor UK portfolio got a battering with Bowleven dropping to 307p, a pound of its recent highs and Rockhopper finishing at 250p, a drop of close to 140p in the last 3 weeks. Xcite continues to drift lower as we await the CPR document to 344p, it was trading at 400p to buy less than 2 weeks ago on takeover rumours. Now the rumours are more of a 350p institutional placing. Its been a bad month, roll on March!