U.S. stock market indices have so far been holding up like there was a fully automated "constant bid" algorithm active in the S&P500 futures contract (or is there...?). The Eurostoxx stock market index was also just consolidating sideways, at best, for the last couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, European credit traders are not so enthusiastic and have started to change their mind regarding European financials institutions credit quality - a development that had already started on January 11 (!) and has accelerated over the last couple of days:
(the Red Line is the Inverse of the Markit ITraxx European Financials Subordinated Debt CDS Spread - or in plain English: the insurance premium that one has to pay to insure against default of the average European bank or insurance company, here shown inverted (i.e., the premium has shot up considerably over the last days).
As Emerging Markets remain rather weak, China broke its medium-term uptrend and sold off by 2.5% today, the Chicago Purchasing Manager Index just missed its forecasted value by a wide margin, and base metals such as Copper erode further, we stay "c&c" - concerned & cautious....
