Euro Zone (Excerpt)

Yesterday’s selloff in the US stock market started early in the day as investors were spooked by a 24bps jump in the 10-year Spanish government bond yield. Reuters reported: “Spain's opposition party on Sunday called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign over a corruption scandal, an allegation Rajoy denies, pushing Spanish 10-year bond yields to six-week highs. In Italy, 10-year Italian government bond yields hit their highest since late December, as chances of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi regaining power raised worries about Rome's ability to fix its fiscal problems.” The good news is that the bad news might halt the recent rally in the euro, which can’t be good for the euro zone’s exporters.

Today's Morning Briefing: Latest Worry List. (1) Back to the wall. (2) Same old, same old. (3) Accentuating the negatives again? (4) Three scenarios: Rational exuberance (60%), irrational exuberance (30%), and panic attack (10%). (5) Hitting the payroll tax wall? (6) Gasoline prices making the news again. (7) Middle East rattling oil market, as usual. (8) Spain and Italy again. (More for subscribers.)