By Chris Becker
As we near the end of the Fed’s QE3 program, risk markets are getting the jitters again, particularly bond markets were spreads are widening as liquidity dries up. In Europe last night we saw the closely watched German IFO survey come in well below expectations as optimism around the Euro-powerhouse economy falters.
This was on the back of some ECB mandated bank stress tests that pushed the peripheral Spanish and Italian bourses down, the DAX off nearly 1% while the FTSE took a small hit at 0.4% down for the night: