The Spanish stock market is taking a sharp slide today. At noon it had fallen below 13,000 points, down more than 4 percent. Sacyr Vallehermoso (the contractor that just won the bid to dig the tunnel under Barcelona to connect the AVE to La Sagrera) and Repsol YPF are down by more than 7%. Iberdrola is down 6%, Banco Santander is down nearly 5%, and Endesa, BBVA, and Telefonica are all down about 3%.

Stocks are down around the world this morning, with Paris, London, Frankfurt, and Milan all down about three percent and Tokyo down four percent. La Vanguardia's analysis says it's due to fear over an upcoming recession in the US; El Periodico and TV3 more or less agree.