Spain

There is a lot of confusion as to what is going on in Spain at this moment, with The Spain Report noting that "TV presenters asking politicians and guests if there has been a declaration of independence or not, and that "Spain confused."

Wikipedia took a more pragmatic approach, and defined Catalonia's independence as lasting all of 9 seconds: from the moments Puidgemont announced independence, to his declaration literally 9 seconds later he was suspending the outcome of the Catalan referendum.

It did not help that moments ago, the following two Bloomberg headlines hit:

It has been a hectic day for Spain where moments ago separatist Catalonia appeared to step back from the brink of officially declaring independence - with potentially dire consequences -  even as Puigdemont asked for a mandate to delare indpendence for Catalonia but proposed to suspend the result of the referendum vote "for weeks", in an attempt to achieve dialogue with the Spanish government "to arrive at an agreed solution to advance with the demands of the people of Catalonia."

Spain's D-Day is here: the country's biggest political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981 is about to get a resolution - one way or another - and as Bloomberg reports, Spanish police are ready to arrest Catalan President Carles Puigdemont "immediately" if he declares independence in the regional parliament, according to two people familiar with the government’s plans.

S&P futures are again modestly in the green as European shares hold steady ahead of a meeting of the Catalan regional parliament and a possible declaration of independence by Catalan leader Puigdemont, while Asian shares rise a the second day. The dollar declined for the 3rd day, its losses accelerating across the board amid growing concerns that Trump's tax reform is once again dead following the Corker spat and a rejection from Paul Ryan, with the move gaining traction after China set the yuan’s fixing stronger for the first time in seven days.

In the latest twist ahead of tomorrow's much anticipated "next step" announcement to be made by the Catalan secessionists, which is still to be formalized, Spain's EFE newswire reports that Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont has reportedly drafted a declaration of "gradual independence", that will be "gradually effective" and which will plan to start a constituent process.