All eyes are on Europe: And I am not talking about the wide, wide world of sports. It seems that the European financial situation has “worsened” as the Spanish yields exploded on Friday sending the Euro stock markets into a sizable selloff. Remember the outcome of the June 29-30 meeting of the Euro policymakers? All the EUROCRATS were celebrating the victory of PRIME MINISTERS RAJOY AND MONTI‘s victory over the IRON CHANCELLOR, Frau Merkel. It now seems that the victory was PYRRHIC as the markets are now testing the resolve of the ECB, EU FIN MINS and, ultimately, the IMF. As with any TROIKA, if all the horses are not pulling together the wagon is very unstable.
Posts Tagged ‘Trichet’
Notes From Underground: It’s Europe Again- The Tour de France; the British Open; and the Olympics
July 22, 2012Notes From Underground: Greece Becomes A Trust Fund Nation
February 21, 2012The discussion is over–ha, ha, ha–and another 3 a.m. decision is made. The Greeks will get their funding and the banks are off the hook for another short period of time. There are so many stipulations involved that it will take time to understand what really took place in the wee hours of another EUROPEAN meeting. It seems certain thought the Greeks will deposit money in escrow to assure all the “DONATING” parties that the CITIZENS OF GREECE WILL ADHERE TO THE FISCAL AUSTERITY TO WHICH THE GREEK TECHNOCRATS AND POLITICIANS HAVE AGREED. THIS IS SIMILAR TO A YOUNG ADULT HAVING TO AGREE TO CERTAIN STIPULATIONS IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THEIR TRUST FUND CHECK, or what is known as a TRUSTAFARIAN.
Notes From Underground: SPANISH MISSTEPS TRIP UP ITALIAN DEBT
November 15, 2011TO OUR READERS: WE’RE REISSUING LAST NIGHT’S PIECE AS MANY OF YOU DID NOT RECEIVE THE POST BECAUSE OF A WORDPRESS GLITCH. ENJOY!
The DEBT markets in Europe renewed the sombre tone of a collapse of Italy and Spain. In the early part of the European trading day, the Italian BTP was holding on to last week’s gains and outperforming the BUNDS to the upside. As the day wound to a close, the “negative” news out of the Merkel’s CDU conference pressured the DEBT markets as new fears arose that the German Chancellor had her party’s support for the jettisoning of some of the weaker peripherals.
Notes From Underground: SPANISH MISSTEPS TRIP UP ITALIAN DEBT
November 14, 2011The DEBT markets in Europe renewed the sombre tone of a collapse of Italy and Spain. In the early part of the European trading day, the Italian BTP was holding on to last week’s gains and outperforming the BUNDS to the upside. As the day wound to a close, the “negative” news out of the Merkel’s CDU conference pressured the DEBT markets as new fears arose that the German Chancellor had her party’s support for the jettisoning of some of the weaker peripherals.
Notes From Underground: FOMC Minutes (Upon Further Review)
October 12, 2011Tonight will be all quick hitters as the big news is sparse, to say the least. The Fed released the minutes of the September FOMC meeting. Besides discussing the idea of QE3, the most interesting read was that Fisher was not as hawkish as his NO VOTE seemed. This makes sense as his speeches this week have been pretty DOVISH and I had thought that he was contradicting himself.
Notes From Underground: LIES, DAMN LIES and THE SADISTICS OF AUSTERITY
October 5, 2011The European problems are made from the continued deception of the policy makers that meander from crisis to crisis. Eurocrats denied that there was a sovereign credit crisis even as the BOND MARKET was aggressively selling the debt of the PIIGS. A problem in Greece when rates went above 10% on 2-year Greek Bonds? No, just some speculators moving the markets in an attempt to make a quick EURO. There are no problems in the EU. Now that the lies have given birth to a major crisis and possible global DEPRESSION, the EUROCRATS are beginning to acknowledge that something is rotten in Brussels.
Notes From Underground: Better Data Leads to More of the Same
October 3, 2011Global equity markets were battered for another day as investor fears continued to outweigh any desire to add risk to portfolios. All U.S. data releases were better than expected and even auto sales proved to be a million more units above consensus on an annualized basis. The equity markets did try to rally but the attempt was short-lived and by market’s end the selloff was greater than 2.5%. Commodities were soft and the DOLLAR continued to rally on its haven status. The BOND market saw the impact of the “TWIST” as it is now October and the SOMA (SYSTEM OPEN MARKET ACCOUNT) began its work on affecting TREASURY DURATION.
Notes From Underground: The Jackson Hole Economic Summit
August 25, 2011Jobless claims, GDP, consumer sentiment … all meaningless as the Bernanke speech at 9 a.m. CST takes precedence. The financial world awaits to hear if the FED CHAIRMAN will deliver another gift like last August’s Portfolio Balance Channel speech. While QE2 did not commence until November, the groundwork was laid in August and the plan delivered at the September FOMC meeting. The markets well understood that the intent of Jackson Hole precipitated the equity market rally that began in September.
Notes From Underground: From the Eve Of Destruction to Days of Exhaustion
August 11, 2011Yesterday the screen watching and the trading became so exhaustive that my eyes glazed over and all of the quote boxes began melting together as if Salvador Dali was painting what I was analyzing and trading. Trading fatigue has definitely set in as the world moves from crisis to crisis and back again. The amount of news that gathers on my screen every hour reminds me of being back in graduate school, except that the tension now and the speed at which it arises overwhelms the mind. Not complaining as this is the way I have chosen to make my living.
