Global markets came off record highs, trading subdued, with US index futures unchanged as traders are unwilling to make major moves ahead of today's ECB minutes and tomorrow’s NFP release, and before speeches by central bankers including SF Fed President John Williams and the potential next Fed chair Jerome Powell, as well as ECB executive board members Peter Praet and Benoit Coeure.
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
While the world desperately tries to shrug off the implications of Catalonia's independence vote (and Rajoy's warnings of potential reactions), investors are rapidly exiting positions in Spanish stocks and bonds...
IBEX (the main Spanish stock index) just plunged to its lowest level since March (as European stocks - Stoxx 600 - hits a 4-mointh high)...
And Spanish sovereign bonds are getting clobbered...
While U.S. equity futures were little changed in a rerun of every other morning this month ahead of a diagonal ramp that closes the S&P at daily all time highs, things were more volatile elsewhere with the dollar sliding as investors weighed the possibility that current Fed Governor Jerome Powell, seen widely as far more dovish than Kevin Warsh, might take the reins from Janet Yellen, who Bloomberg reported was said to be getting the cold shoulder.
As reported previously, in a sternly worded address to the nation, Spain's King Felipe VI condemned organizers of Catalonia's independence referendum for having put themselves "outside the law" and said the situation in Spain was "extremely serious", calling for unity. In his address, King Felipe VI said Catalan leaders who organized the referendum showed their "disrespect to the powers of the state" adding that "they have broken the democratic principles of the rule of law.