Financials Give Up Stress-Test Gains As FANGs Falter

Well that escalated quickly...

As Bloomberg notes, today’s selling is nearly as broad as yesterday’s buying.

Investors can’t ditch technology and consumer-oriented stocks fast enough. Yield-sensitive sectors --utilities, REITs -- are getting hit with sell tickets too as bonds sell off (10-year Treasury yield is up as much as 15.8 bps in just three days, breaking the key 2.25% level). Wall Street is mostly risk off, worried that central bankers worldwide are threatening to pull away the punch bowl just as inflation picks up in Germany ahead of key PCE data for the U.S. tomorrow.

Tech’s weakness is extending a global retreat for the sector. TECHNOLOGY It’s hard to pin the broad drop in the sector on any specific news. Rather than any change in corporate fortunes, the reason may just be rotation, out of social/computer companies and into banks. The losses are broad.

Financials opened exuberantly but it appears "sell the news" is the plan...

As the Big Banks all roll over...

We"re gonna need moar buybacks.

Italy Bond Risk Soars To 3-Year Highs As Youth Unemployment Tops 40%

The last 4 months have seen something "odd" happen in Europe"s periphery. Sovereign "risk" has conspicuously (and rationally) risen as macro-fundamentals have deteriorated - something that we have not seen since Draghi"s 2012 "whatever it takes" moment.

For the first time since June 2015, Italian youth unemployment has risen above 40% and notably, Italian bond yields are rising...

And the result is growing concerns about Italy"s idiosyncratic risk as the risk premium of BTPs over Bunds soars to its highest sicne 2014 (worst now than the Referendum peak)...

Time for moar "whatever it takes" - just ignore the transitory inflation surge and currency war warnings from Trump.