While Italian and Spanish sovereign bonds weakened notably today, the equity markets across Europe decided that the limit-down move in US futures was a storm in a teacup and ignored it. EURUSD has broken its inexorable 10-day linear ramp leaving the USD almost perfectly unchanged on the week. Italy and Spain equity indices are up 2.6% and 3% respectively while Italian and Spanish bond spreads are around 16bps tighter. Rather like what we witnessed this week in the US, Europe's VIX exploded today (biggest jump since July) as protection was sought in a hurry but the underlying indices did not drop as (just like over here) they are simply too illiquid to cope with the kind of selling that is desired. This leads to the game-theoretical first-mover dilemma - and the preference was to hedge via bonds, FX, and options as Europe closed - because think of the optics if Spanish stocks were to fall?
Spot The Odd Market Out!!
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Charts: Bloomberg