The direction of the European markets and the S&P futures this morning have been solely driven by whether Italy’s Berlusconi will resign or not. We will thus have another week of markets being driven by politicians. An Italian newspaper at around 6am said he will step down and that was denied by Berlusconi one hour later. The Italian 2 yr yield is up a sharp 45 bps to 5.92% nonetheless but was trading at almost 6.20% earlier in the morning. The 10 yr yield is at a concerning rate of 6.53%, the highest since 1997 after trading as high as 6.68%. In Greece, Papandreou is stepping down as expected with an interim government to follow that will try to seal the deal with the EU/IMF and new elections will come soon after. European finance ministers meet again today with the structure of a newly enhanced EFSF being a main topic of discussion along with Greece and Italy of course. The EFSF will try again this week to sell the 3b euros worth of bonds they were unable to sell last week. Retail Sales in the euro region fell .7% m/o/m in Sept vs expectations of a drop of just .1%. German IP in Sept fell a more than expected 2.7%
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