Archive - Sep 23, 2013

• Triumph Confirms 'Era of Merkelism' (Spiegel)
• Merkel must reach out to leftist rivals after poll triumph (Reuters)
• Norwegian Air says both its Dreamliners hit by technical issues (Reuters)
• Chinese court gives Bo Xilai life sentence (CBS)
• Social Dems Deflect Talk of Merkel Alliance (Spiegel)
• Blasts shake Nairobi mall, smoke pours from building (Reuters)
• Open-Government Laws Fuel Hedge-Fund Profits (WSJ)
• Forbes Calls Goldman CEO Holier Than Mother Teresa (Matt Taibbi)
• BlackBerry move away from consumers unlikely to stem decline (Reuters)
• And another Greek strike: Greek teachers, civil servants to strike against layoffs (Reuters)

After a three day standoff between as many as 15 al-Shabaab hostage takers in a Nairobi mall and the local police and now army (as a tank has just arrived) has resulted in nothing more than mass casualties and even more black smoke rising from the structure, it is likely that the end of the siege is near, especially considering the staccatto of loud explosions coming from the mall in the past hour. Follow the action live at the following live webcast.

The German elections came and went, with Merkel initially said to have an absolute majority, but in the end being forced to design a Grand Coalition. Still, the punditry has been tripping over each other desperate to make that result (or any other result) positive for Europe , which despite now paving the way for policy continuity, together with the latest round of less than impressive Eurozone PMIs (following the strongest China HSBC PMI in 6 months) failed to inspire appetite for risk in Europe this morning where stocks have traded mixed. What is amusing is that everyone expected, the second Merkel gets reelected things in Europe would start going pump in the night - sure enough, the Italian FTSE-MIB is underperforming in early trade amid reports that Italy's economy minister Saccomanni threatened to step down if the country does not stick to its pledges it made to the European Commission. However to a certain degree, the negative sentiment towards Italy was offset by €4.8bln of coupon payments and €24.1bln of redemptions from Italy which is eligible for reinvestment this week. With a second Greek 2-day strike in one week scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, look for Europe's catalytic event to unclog, now that the German political picture is set, culminating with the 3rd (and 4th) Greek bailouts and probably more: after all Europe now needs a lower EURUSD (recall Adidas' warning), and that usually means a localized crisis.

Dispassionate macro overview.