We sit and wait. Wait for three days of debates in Greece and a vote Wednesday night on whether the PM can muster 151 yea’s to cut more spending and raise more taxes to satisfy the EU and IMF to receive more money so as to avoid defaulting on their upcoming debt maturities. In the mean time, the debt of Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Italy are selling off again today with CDS in Ireland and Portugal moving to fresh highs. European banks though are stable as some agreement seems to be coming together amongst the owners of Greek debt to agree to a voluntary rollover. Sarkozy has said he’s looking for a 70% rollover ratio but I don’t know what they’ll do with the balance. Chinese Premier Wen has been making the rounds in Europe and yesterday said “China has actually increased the purchase of government bonds of some European countries, and we haven’t cut back on our euro holdings.” Of interest in the US this week is of course the RIP of QE2 and we watch the results of the Treasury’s sale of 2’s, 5’s and 7’s. Friday’s ISM mfr’g # is the key data point of the week.
