I was confused by the following sentence found in this post:
French bank shares, which have been in the eye of the storm, recovered sharply (BNP Paribas was up 13% on the day while Société Générale rose by 5%).
My impression is, and Wikipedia says that: "The eye is a region of mostly calm weather found at the center of strong tropical cyclones."
If French bank shares were in the calm region, wouldn't that imply that they were largely unscathed (in comparison to their neighbors perhaps) and that they wouldn't really have anything to "recover" from?
Is there some distinction that I am missing between eyes of storms, cyclones, hurricanes, etc?
Am I missing something else, or does the sentence not really make sense?
Best Answer
I'm pretty sure that it means that there is more turbulence to come. If you are in the eye of the storm that means that you had to suffer through the winds of the outer swirling cloud. Inevitably, as the storm moves away and you leave the eye, the winds are going to pick up again. In the context of the financial markets it could be a reference to the second dip of the double-dip recession that may be approaching.