Markets on Tuesday were almost euphoric after Spain managed to sell some bonds at not outlandish interest rates. Even the Greeks managed to borrow money, albeit for just three months. Better than expected business confidence in Germany also encouraged markets bulls to press the accelerator button.
The IMF produced a global economic forecast slightly higher than its last one. "All good," as Hugh Bonneville's character Ian Fletcher often says with a fixed smile on the BBC's comedy 2012. The FTSE was up more than 100 points at 5766. Continental stock markets followed suit.
But traders are looking at the magnificent froth on their capuccinos and failing to see that their coffee has gone cold.
Which is another way of saying that figures from the real economy were decidedly chilly.
European new car sales, for instance. Car sales in Italy were down 26.7% in March compared with a year earlier. Registrations across the EU were down 7.0% to their lowest March level since 1998.
According to an Association of European Automakers (ACEA) March is traditionally the strongest month for car sales across the 27-nation bloc. Not this time. It was the sixth consecutive month of falling European car sales.
And Nicloas Sarkozy won't be happy. After three years of keeping the economic plates spinning, they are starting to fall to the floor and crash. The second biggest decline came in France, where sales were down 23.2%.
The news isn't good for the French and Italian car industry either. Renault's Carlos Ghosn, and Fiat's Sergio Marchionne will be looking even farther afield for growth after deliveries in their home markets were down 21% and 26% respectively.
The only two bright spots were Germany and the UK where sales were up, though for different reasons. In Germany the economy is doing well and sales powered ahead 3.4%. The UK saw a 1.8% rise after a succession of steady falls. In short, we have already gone through a downturn, though nothing like the cataclysm underway in France and Italy.
So what is there to cheer? Looking around at some key economic indicators, not much.
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