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An ECB spokesperson said that “the Governing Council will have an ad-hoc meeting on Wednesday to discuss current market conditions” and that surely refers to the bond market rout in Europe, which has seen Italian yields explode and spreads widen considerably in the past week.
The central bank didn’t offer any hints about dealing with fragmentation risks on Thursday last week and that has seen a major selloff in regional bonds, especially the peripheries. Showing a lack of urgency isn’t going to resolve that and we’re finally seeing the ECB step up to let the market know that they are watching.
It will be interesting to see what detailed solution they can offer to address the risks of fragmentation at this point, beyond what Schnabel offered up yesterday here.
For now at least, the market is listening that maybe policymakers will do something about it. The euro caught a bit of a pop with EUR/USD still being defended near 1.0400 this week but the 23.6 retracement level at 1.0485 is likely to limit gains ahead of the Fed.
If there aren’t any significant details offered up by the ECB in this meeting, I reckon we can see the selling continue again in Italian bonds as the jitters will continue to grow in the months ahead.