Markets show doubts over Spanish bailout

It seems that investors were unimpressed with the Spanish bailout.

European stocks finished flat on Monday, erasing early gains in the final hour of trading. US stocks closed lower with the S&P 500 falling 1.3 percent.

The euro weakened 0.3 percent against the US dollar. The Spanish 10-year yield rose 29 basis points to 6.51 percent and the Italian 10-year yield rose 26 basis points to 6.03 percent.

Reuters notes how weak the market reaction to the Spanish bailout has been when compared to previous bailouts.

Greece's first bailout in 2010 sparked a healthy 1.3 percent rally in the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index on the following day, but subsequent rescues fostered more muted responses.

The reaction after Spain's bank bailout has been the most downbeat of the lot, particularly given the size of the package and the speed with which gains were wiped out. U.S. stocks fell into negative territory within an hour of Monday's opening bell and then continued dropping.

"Even the most inconsolable and bearish analysts were taken aback at how decisively markets rejected this bailout," said Richard Franulovich, currency strategist at Westpac Securities.

Asian stock markets closed before the negative sentiment prevailed, however, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index managed to climb 1.9 percent.

Positive economic data also helped boost Asian markets.

On Sunday, China reported a jump in trade figures for May. Exports rose 15.3 percent in May from a year earlier while imports rose 12.7 percent.

On Monday, China reported that new local-currency loans rose to 793.2 billion yuan in May from 681.8 billion yuan in April.

In Japan, a report on Monday showed that the business survey index of sentiment at large manufacturers improved to -5.7 in the April-June quarter from -7.3 in the previous quarter.

Japanese consumer confidence also improved in May. The Cabinet Office's household consumer confidence index rose to 40.7 from 40.1 in April.