Some key European events that traders will be watching this week are German factory orders(December) on Mon and will be listening to the Eurogroup finance minister meetings. Tuesday, Bernanke will testify before the budget committee and Merkel will speak regarding Europe’s fiscal future.
In early morning trading, after 5 weeks of positive trading/strong macro data and the Dow making fresh 3 year highs the DJIA is down by 45 points and the S&P is down around 5 points. The VIX traded under 17 on Fri but closed near its highs after investors wanted cheap protection. Perhaps investors were seeking some cheap protection against a “Lehman-like” event.
If the 10 yr yield can trade comfortably above 2% and the Vix can trade under 20 I think the tape is set to trade much higher. Crude oil is trading around the 97$ level with a lot of risk premium still built in. Look for crude oil to go much lower unless some crazy geo-political news comes out of the middle east.
