Market Check

Market Check: Dow Jones down 107, Nasdaq down 9, S&P 500 down 6.

The President of Spain's Catalonia, Arthur Mas, said the region is running out of cash because of difficulties it is having refinancing debt. It is seeking help from the central government.

"We don't care how they do it, but we need to make payments at the end of the month," Mas told the media.

Debts in regional governments in Spain have been growing as borrowing costs spin out of control. Catalonia, which represents one fifth of the Spanish economy, has more than 13 billion euros in debt to refinance this year, as well as its deficit. Spanish regions have 36 billion euros ($45 billion) to refinance this year, as well as a deficit of 15 billion euros.

Catalonia's neighbor, Valencia, paid 7 percent for a six-month loan it made recently.

Investors can gain quick access to Spanish equities through ETF iShares MSCI Spain Index (NYSE: EWP).

Market wrap-up for May 24th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 33.6 to 12,529.75; S&P 500 up 1.8 to 1,320.68; Nasdaq down 10.7 to 2,839.38

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right..: Markets saw some weakness following a European Union summit this week which saw divergence on bringing a unified euro-based bond to the table. Supporters included France's Hollande and Italy's Monti, while Germany's Merkel was opposed. Traders will likely now focus on Greek elections coming up in a few weeks, which all but has the future of Greece as a euro-zone member hanging in the results.
  
  China's preliminary Manufacturing PMI fell from 49.3 in April to 48.7 in May. Meanwhile, the euro-zone composite index came in at 45.9 in May, down from 46.7 the prior month.
  
  Otherwise, some tepid earnings numbers out of tech added to negative sentiment in that sector, with many finishing in the red Thursday.
  
  
• Check yer egos at the door: Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) said it will be holding a conference call today in order to discuss possible options with investors and traders about the Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) IPO. The firm said there will be a number of price adjustments to be made. No speculation yet on the impact the adjustments will have on Morgan Stanley's bottom-line numbers, but analyst should be chiming in within a few days.
  
  
• With a PayPal partnership help?: Verifone (NYSE: PAY) is lower in late trading following second-quarter 2012 results which produced EPS of 64 cents and revs of $472 million, both beating views, but guidance for the third quarter and fiscal 2012 which failed to meet expectations. For more color on the numbers, click here.
  
  
• Hiring slows, jobless claims become stagnant: Initial claims fell by 2,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 370,000, down from an upwardly revised reading of 372,000 in the prior week.
  
  Economists surveyed by Reuters and Bloomberg were looking for a reading of 370,000, while broader Street expectations were looking for a drop to 365,000.
  
  
• Cola is cola...right?: Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) moved higher on the session following a positive Barron's mention.

In news out of Europe, the recent meeting of EU leaders produced few new developments. Leaders in France and Italy pressed for euro-bonds, but as expected, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is opposed to this idea.

Eyes are now being focused on elections in Greece on June 17th. Poll there show that the anti-austerity party, Syriza, is tied with the New Democracy party, who support the agreements of the current bailout plan. At this point, there doesn't appear to be much chance to renegotiate the plan, since the Germans are more or less drawing a line in the sand.

Merkel told reporters she wants Greece to remain in the euro, but they have to uphold earlier commitments.

Markets in Europe are moving higher this morning as market players position themselves for more uncertainty.

Traders in American can get access to European markets by investing in the MSCI European ETF (NYSE: VGK) and the Euro through CurrencyShares Euro Trust (NYSE: FXE).

Market wrap-up for May 23rd

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 6.7 to 12,496.15; S&P 500 up 2.2 to 1,318.86; Nasdaq up 11.0 to 2,850.12

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• The yin-and-yang of tech giants: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is looking fit-and-trim in the after-hours session Wednesday following its second-quarter 2012 report showing a beat on the top and bottom lines as well as a new restructuring effort.
  
  Following Dell's first-quarter miss late Tuesday, H-P investors were a little nervous, sending shares over 3 percent lower on the session. However, H-P produced adjusted EPS of 98 cents on revs of $30.7 billion, versus views calling for EPS of 91 cents and sales of $29.9 billion, causing an after-hours buying spree.
  
  For more on the quarter, click here.
  
  
• On the upside, Morgan Stanley will now accept your friend request: Morgan Stanley continues to reel from its Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) blunder. According to reports, the firm sent out a memo to 17,200 financial advisers at its Morgan Stanley Smith Barney retail brokerage joint venture saying they are reviewing customer IPO orders on a trade-by-trade basis and will make price adjustments if those clients paid too much for the stock.
  
  During the Facebook IPO, data shows there were many orders lagging so badly and timed so poorly, that some didn't even realize an order went through until Monday morning.
  
  For more color, click here.
  
  
• Just not the same morning buzz without a little litigation thrown in there: Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) won a key patent victory against Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) Wednesday. According to a federal jury, Google's Android mobile operating system was found not to infringe on Oracle's Java technology.
  
  There will be a third part to this story, determination of total damages Google might be liable for. There was a copyright verdict which found Google infringed on a small amount of Java code.
  
  
• Wow, investors really went away in May: The Dow Jones appears to be back to its old ways. Following a bit of a jump on Monday, the index logged a two-day losing streak, bringing its total to about 14 losing days over the past 16 sessions, or 88 percent of the time.
  
  Other U.S. markets got a little bit of hope late in the session following comments by Italy PM Monti and newly-elected French president Hollande over a blanket euro zone bond. For more color, click here.
  
  
• Bucks for Bankia: Spain will move to recap Bankia SA with a €9 billion ($11.4 billion) infusion, the WSJ reported late in the session. The funds will bypass Bankia directly, going to its parent Banco Financiero y de Ahorros SA.
  
  Bankia is Spain's third-largest institution by assets, hanging on to 10 percent of the country's loans and deposits. The firm has €37.52 billion of real-estate developer loans, or which €17.85 billion are considered "problematic," according to the report.