How to Play the Annual European Meltdown

By Marc Courtenay:How and why can they do so? There may already exists a massive emergency bailout plan that includes participation by the Federal Reserve.The people who write the news and craft the emotional headlines waited until this week, a historically light-volume one, to try to scare the stuffing out of investors. U.S. Markets fell more than 2% Monday on fears over the global debt scenario. The Dow was down roughly 300 points in early trading; the S&P shed about 30 points.

The Netherlands government has officially collapsed in a dispute over austerity measures. Elections likely in September. Meanwhile, the Czech government is also on the verge of collapse, for the same reason: austerity measures. The Financial Times reports Dutch government falls over budget talks

One year ago, we provided our list of the 10 indicators to watch that seemed to precede the stock market declines in 2010 and 2011 and accurately warned of another spring slide in 2012. We again look to these indicators for signs of a potential spring slide in the stock market this year.

There are certain things we have gotten used to counting on each spring: the season changes and the weather warms, baseball games bring fans to the stadiums, the economy weakens, and investors “sell in May and go away.” The old Wall Street adage “sell in May and go away” refers to the seasonal tendency of stocks’ performance to weaken in the spring until the fall. In recent years, this spring slide in the stock market was driven by the arrival of a spring soft spot in the economy.

The year started off with a slew of stronger-than-expected economic numbers that had many economists forecasting a return to trend growth.

Glenn Rogers submits:Well, if you don't have enough excitement watching the markets these days then you should take up skydiving or stock car racing for a hobby.

Jason Kaspar submits: Originally posted on GoldShark.com

T. Marc Schober submits:2010 should be another exciting year for agriculture and farmland. The economy is expected to continue to stabilize in 2010, but headwinds from high unemployment and rising deficits in Europe will make it a bumpy ride.