Europe & USA

Europe
The Europeans don't seem to be able to get themselves out of trouble. Germany has now placed a ban on shorting euro government bonds and CDS but no other euro zone country seemed to know about it which has created mass uncertainty. Something financial markets never like.

USA
Some good news has come from the FOMC minutes though. The Fed marked up its 2010 real GDP forecasts from 2.8% - 3.5% to 3.2% - 3.7% and lowered its unemployment rate (9.5% - 9.7% to 9.1% - 9.5%) and core PCE (1.1% - 1.7% to 0.9 - 1.2%) forecasts.