PIGS Facing The Fire (Again)! Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain Seeing Surge In Sovereign Debt Yields

European PIGS must face the fire … again.

Once upon a time, European PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) saw incredible spikes in their sovereign yields related to Greek credit default contagion. But the European Central Bank (ECB), World Bank (WB), International Money Fund (IMF) rose to the rescue.

But here we go again! Thanks to rising inflation, the ECB is threatening to remove the massive monetary stimulus. Sound familiar??

Here are the Eurozone 10-year sovereign yields as of this morning. Greece is up a whopping 27.4 basis points, Italy is up 11.7 BPS, Portugal is up 9.3 BPS and Spain is up 9.2 BPS. The core of the Eurozone, France and Germany, are up 4.3 and 3.0 BPS, respectively.

Germany has REAL 10Y Bunds yields of -4.7%.

Like the USA, the Eurozone Taylor Rule is much higher than the ECB’s Main Refinancing rate of 0%..

Here is ECB’s Christine Lagarde saying “What, me worry??”

The Nervous 19! Nineteen European Nations Have Negative 2Y Sovereign Yields (Only One Rate Increase Expected In 2022, ECB’s Stiff Monetary Policy)

Let’s see how The Federal Reserve is going to compete with other central banks when 19 European nations have negative 2-year sovereign yields. Call them the “Nervous 19.” Note that France has the lowest 2Y yield of the big 3 (France -0.664%, Germany -0.593% and Italy -0.092%).

True, The Fed’s reaction to COVID shutdowns was more extreme than the ECB’s reaction.

The ECB’s main refinancing rate is 0% and The Fed’s target rate is 0.25%.

Unlike the US with its 4 expected rate increases, the Eurozone is pricing in only 1 rate increase for 2022 … in October.

The ECB’s monetary policy is as stiff as French President Emmanuel Macron.

German Inflation Rises To 5.3% As 10Y Sovereign Yield ALMOST Rises To 0% (France Inflation 2.7% With 10Y Sov Yield At +0.25%)

The world has become a wild and wacky place since COVID was unleashed on an unsuspecting population. Since the massive spending spree by The Federal government in the USA coupled with extraordinary monetary stimulus from The Federal Reserve, US inflation has shot up to 6.8% YoY.

German is also having an inflation moment. With their CPI YoY running at 5.3%, faster than the anticipated 5.1%.

At least the German 10-year sovereign yield is ALMOST back to 0%.

France, on the other hand, is seeing inflation rising to 2.70% YoY.

While the French 10Y sovereign yield rose to 0.2531%.

France’s Macron certainly likes to have his photo taken as if he wants to go 10 rounds with UK’s Tyson Fury.