Italian stocks have fallen five weeks in a row ending this week down over 3%. The rest of European stocks (including Spain) ended either side of unchanged. A similar picture in Sovereign bonds where Italian 10Y spreads smashed 50bps wider on the week (and Portugal +25bps) while the rest ended +5-10bps only on the week. Today was a weak day overall with the most obvious place to see that weakness the plunge in EURUSD which broke below 1.30 for the first time since early December. Swiss 2Y rates ended negative, EUR-USD basis swaps were leaking worse, and Europe's VIX closed up around 1 vol at 21.5% (well off its highs of the week). Critically, we saw no BTFD appetite in Italian risk assets this week - even with the auction going well - which suggests that Italian banks are as stuffed as they can be and fast money is fleeing.
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Very little appetite to scoop up those 'cheap' Italian risk assets...
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Charts: Bloomberg