Even as European stocks struggled for a third consecutive day on Wednesday, investors kept looking at LIBOR. Looking, blinking and looking again. The London interbank offered rate on three-month loans rose 19 basis points, to 3.06%, the British Bankers' Association said. The spike is the biggest one-day move since Sept. 29, 1999, when fears of Y2K chaos infected the markets. It's also painful proof of a September 2008 global liquidity crisis despite massive cash infusions from U.S. and European banks.
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Europe's newest petro power, Vladimir Putin's Russia, is far from immune.
The Russian central bank poured $44 billion into the country's three biggest banks on Wednesday and halted stock trading. The benchmark Micex index has fallen 25% in the past three days. - Barbara Rudolph
