Illin'

Macro Man isn't sure what feels worse: the first flu bug of the winter season, or financial markets. The flu bug laid him up for Monday and most of Tuesday, while the market has provided relatively little solace. The retail sales and PPI disingenuous to suggest that the data actually fit the core view; in fact, they do not, and the post-payroll bond short was chucked overboard as a result. More thoughts will hopefully be forthcoming tomorrow. While Macro Man was away from the trenches for most of the last couple days, it seems quite clear that Voldemort has once again been despoiling the foreign exchange market by stepping into to sell EUR/USD and stopping the post-data rally on a dime. Perhaps the flu was a blessing in disguise....

Voldemort was aided, of course, by an unexpected moan from French PM de Villepin, who (admittedly playing to his Airbus audience) suggested that the politicos need to get more involved in setting EUR exchange rate policy because, by implication, the ECB weren't doing a good job. If only Macro Man had put on the Boeing/EADS spread discussed a couple of weeks ago... Tomorrow should see Macro Man fighting fit, with a portfolio update and some preliminary results from a recent research project...