Portuguese Strike as Contagion Spreads to Streets: Euro Credit

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates is facing the country’s biggest strike in 22 years as fallout from Europe’s debt crisis spreads from bond markets to the streets.

Workers are walking off the job today to protest government austerity measures as concern about Socrates’s ability to tame the euro-region’s fourth-biggest budget deficit pushed the cost of insuring Portugal’s debt against default to a record high. Credit default swaps climbed 23 basis points yesterday to 482.2, while the yield premium demanded to hold the country’s 10-year bonds over German bunds rose 15 basis points today to 450.