Asia saw a mixed session with prices marginally lower but not too much to write home about. It was not until Europe opened did we start to see a pick-up in volatility providing dealers with something to talk about.

The oil and energies market provided the discussion point with TWI, Brent and Nat-Gas all falling between 5% and 6% on the day. We have not seen WTI close this low since early 2009. Obviously, this sell-off resulted in energy stock declines in the states (non-surprisingly led by Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX)), the result of which saw DOW futures lower by 200 points just ahead of the opening.

Stocks managed to close in positive territory in Europe (DAX +1.2% and CAC +0.9%) but well off their intraday highs. Gold was another commodity that suffered a heavy day closing day over 1.1% at $1073.

Again we saw more flattening in the US bond market as 10’s and Bonds (30yr) rallied an additional 2BP against 5 years. 30yrs are again under the psychological 3% barrier closing at 2.96%. Meanwhile the spread US/Germany at 10yr closed +162BP, whilst at 5yr it closed +174BP.

In the currency markets the USD made ground against most majors closing better by 0.4-0.7% better against the GBP and EURO respectively. Given the weakness in oil the Russian Ruble lost close to 1% with the last trade seen just under the 70 level.