Today's Major Market Move: Cyprus Equity Market is down 64% for the year

After seeing a slight pop over the last 2 weeks (along with every other equity market on the planet), the economic malaise has taken hold in Cyprus again and its equity market is trending back down. It is now back at the lows for the year, down 64%.

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Fairly or not, global investors have essentially lumped Cyprus and Greece together from an economic standpoint and their equity markets have tracked each other. Here's a chart of the main equity indexes in Greece and Cyprus in terms of % performance over the last year (blue is Greece, red is Cyprus):



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The most recent equity index bounce was the result of yet another European bailout plan being announced 2 weeks ago. In reality it was an announcement of a future announcement; the full plan is not due to be released until October 23. The market was in the midst of a major sell off when the initial announcement was made back on Oct 12. The European leaders, in their desperation, decided to simply declare that they were prepared to do 'something' and would work out the details later. I was very surprised at the markets inability to call bs on these types of shenanigans. Well 'later' is almost here so the details better be good.