The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

The story in a Spanish newspaper that the IMF, EU and US Treasury are ready to provide a financial backup to Spain was said to be “rubbish” by a EC spokesman but Spanish bonds are under pressure again and yields are at the highest spread vs German bunds since the mid ’90s ahead of a 10 yr and 30 yr Spanish bond auction tomorrow. Since the EU is setting up its own bailout fund, I’m not sure how the US Treasury got into that story. Portuguese debt is also under pressure after they sold 9 month bills at a yield of 2.69% and a b/c of 1.8 vs the one last month that yielded 2.44% with a b/c of 2.3. 3 month Euribor is up at the highest level since Oct ’09 and its spread to EU 3 month LIBOR is at a fresh record. Back to the US, ABC confidence fell 2 pts to -45 after matching its high of the year last week. After a 42% drop in the past 5 weeks, the MBA said purchases rose 7.3% and refi’s gained 21% to the highest since May ’09.