Monday Afternoon Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

The U.S. equity markets posted losses across the board on Monday. A developing bailout fiasco in Cyprus and lower than expected homebuilder sentiment helped add some selling pressure to what some see as a welcome cooling-off period.

At the close: DJIA: -0.43%, S&P 500: -0.55%, NASDAQ: -0.35%.

Here are three stories that helped shape markets on Monday:

1) Cyprus was not just handed the short end of the stick, it was whacked with it. Faced with a crumbling financial industry, President Nicos Anastasiades requested a bailout package worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion). European finance ministers, weary from orchestrating a number of bailouts since the onset of the financial crisis, determined that if Cyprus wants a bailout, it would have to help pay for it.

The financing mechanism under consideration is a highly controversial 6.75 to 9.9 percent tax on deposits held within the country. Effectively, this means that anybody who has been saving money will be slammed with the costs of the bailout. What’s more, the decision was made on Saturday night, and banks will be closed for most of this week, meaning depositors are unable to retrieve their cash… (Read more.)