Political Problems Pemeate

A lack of progress over the U.S. debt ceiling and intensifying contagion concerns in Europe (Portugal, Spain and Italy may go the way of Greece and Ireland) have triggered a further flight-to-safety; equity markets are generally in retreat and quality government bonds are rallying. The weak job numbers make the possibility of QE3 more likely; only 18K jobs were created last month as opposed to the usual 180K at this point in the cycle.