With still 4 days before Christmas, the Nat’l Retail Federation did not let the weekend snow storms from altering their opinion that holiday sales will decline 1% y/o/y. Discounting that may have ended over the weekend will just get extended to bring back the weekend hibernating customers. While Greek bonds are trading down again (Greek 10 yr spread to the risk free German bund is wider by another 8 bps to 274, up 279 bps in the past 2 weeks), its 10th day of weakness in the past 13, and Asian stocks traded mixed, European stocks, ex Greece, are higher and that in turn is giving a bid to US futures in a post expiration, quarterly rebalancing day. US treasuries are lower in response to the equity bounce with the 10 yr note yield approaching 3.6% again. Home sales data, income, spending, durable goods and jobless claims highlight the economic calendar this week.
