by Calculated Risk on 2/18/2011 12:34:00 PM

A few notes and stories ...
• Portugal bond yields are soaring with the 10-year near 7.5%. There is growing speculation that Portugal will be the third European country (after Greece and Ireland), to require a bailout.

• The last European meeting failed to reach a consensus on a resolution mechanism. There is a meeting of several EU leaders, apparently including Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, in Helsinki on March 4th, and then a special eurozone debt crisis summit on March 11th. (A Portugal bailout might be high on the agenda by then - especially since Portugal has large funding needs in April).

• The Irish election is on February 25th.

• From Reuters: ECB borrowing spike intensifies bank speculation

Emergency borrowing from the European Central Bank remained exceptionally elevated for a second straight day on Friday, intensifying speculation that one or more euro zone bank might be facing new funding problems.

• From the NY Times: Spain Gives Savings Banks Six More Months to List Equity

• Here are the Ten Year yields for Spain, Ireland and Greece (mostly moving sideways other than Portugal, although Ireland seems to be drifting up too).