Relief in the stock markets after the purchase of Credit Suisse by UBS

After opening in the red, the main European indices closed higher: Paris gained 1.27%, Frankfurt 1.12%, London 0.93%, Madrid 1.31% and Milan 1.59%. Many of the bank stocks, which opened with sharp falls, corrected the trend and closed with gains.

Although uncertainty about the crisis persists, the Dow Jones gained 1.20%, the Nasdaq technology 0.39% and the S&P 500 broad index 0.89% in a good day on Wall Street.

Among the increases in Europe was precisely UBS, which finally gained 1.26% after announcing the purchase of Credit Suisse for just over US$3.2 billion. The share of the largest Swiss banking entity had lost up to 15% of its value at the opening of the Zurich stock market.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse sank 55.74% to 82 cents per share. Five years ago, his share was worth around 15 Swiss francs.

There is still “a lot of uncertainty” about how the situation will play out, said Jack Allen-Reynolds, euro zone economist at Capital Economics, who wonders where the current volatility might lead.

Banks: the benefited sector

Among the medium-sized ones, First Citizens (+10.47%), based in Raleigh (North Carolina), Fifth Third (+5.05%), from Cincinnati (Ohio) and the Californian PacWest (+10, 78%).

New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) shot up 31.65% after the announcement made on Sunday about the recovery of part of the loan and deposit portfolio of its competitor: Signature Bank, one of the three bankrupt banks in the United States in the midst of this crisis.

Some big names in the industry also rose such as JPMorgan Chase (+1.06%) and Goldman Sachs (+1.93%).

Likewise, banks are not yet out of danger: several large entities continued to fall, such as Barclays (-2.29%), ING (-0.66%), Deutsche Bank (-0.50%) or Société Générale (- 0.83%), although others such as the Spanish BBVA and Santander closed in the green with gains of 3.23% and 2.77%, respectively.

In the United States, the First Republic bank had a brutal fall of 47.11% on the stock market after being demoted by the S&P rating agency.

On the other hand, investors are expectant about what position the Federal Reserve will take in the United States at the end of its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday: if it will favor a strong increase in interest rates in its fight against inflation, if it will take out the foot of the accelerator and proceed to a small increase, or if it will leave rates stable in the middle of the banking crisis.

In this context, the large central banks of the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan announced that they will adopt coordinated efforts to improve access to liquidity.

In the oil market, both the barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May and US WTI for April gained ground: 1.12% to US$73.79 a barrel and 1.34% to US$67.64, respectively.