general election

Submitted by Saxo Bank's Martin O'Rourke via TradingFloor.com,

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Senator Rand Paul blasted fellow Republican Senator John McCain over McCain’s perpetual warmongering on ABC’s “This Week”.

Some are undoubtedly disheartened by political infighting, but this infighting is good.

These are debates the country desperately needs to have.

Earlier today Rand paul stated “We’re very lucky John McCain is not in charge.”

Despite a calm start to European trading, with local equity bourses posting solid early gains, European political fears have returned this morning, leading to a blow out in French government bond yields, pushing the 10y yield now higher by 5bps and 5y up 8bps, as early losses extend after latest poll shows support for anti-euro presidential candidate Marine Le Pen rising in both election rounds.

As a result, the French-German 10Y govt spread has jumped to 85 bps, following an accelerated selloff, to the widest level since July 2012.

Despite US markets being closed in observance of Washington's birthday, S&P futures spiked during overnight trading, reaching new all time highs before fading some of the gains. Both Asian and European markets traded modestly higher after paring early gains. The U.S. dollar traded in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events, while the pound rallied the most in more than two weeks ahead of a House of Lords Brexit debate, while South Africa’s rand fell on political turmoil. Oil advanced for a third day and spot gold rose for the fourth session in five.

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi announced today that he would call a PD party congress, effectively putting his role as party leader into question.

In his speech, Renzi stated “Some people wanted a party congress to find an alternative to Renzi-ism. It needs to be done as an alternative to Trump-ism, Le Pen-ism and even Grillo-ism.”