Since all market eyes are on Europe right now, the key event of the day will be a routine budget vote in Italy at 9:30am est time as it will be a litmus test for Parliamentary support or lack thereof for Berlusconi. He needs 316 of the 630 votes to avoid a confidence vote. While we await, the Italian 2 yr yield is at a new high but yields are down modestly longer out on their curve. The ECB said that Italian banks borrowed 111m euros from them in Oct up from 104m in Sept, 80m in July and 40m back in Apr. Intesa, the large Italian bank, reported earnings better than expected at 7:35am and the 6% rally in the stock helped to lift markets further this morning. SocGen reported earnings below expectations but the stock is up by 8% as they followed BNP in writing down its Greek bond holdings by 60%. An aside, with crude oil rising to a 3 month high, is the global economy not as bad as feared or are supply issues becoming a problem?
