European Vacation Looking Better on Many Fronts

The major European banks, BCS CS DB, all three of which were printing fresh lows on a daily basis earlier this year, are now suddenly surging and flashing signs of putting in intermediate-term, if not longer-term, bottoms. 

A major part of the bear case for global dislocations in markets seemed to hinge on the notion that at least one of these banks was in serious trouble and could easily go the way of Lehman Brothers from 2008. 

But the BREXIT vote would mark was bad at got for them in 2016, in all likelihood, as the U.S. Election and recent Italy vote have been merely reasons for bulls to buy the dip. True, some Italy banks are still suspect here. 

But as far the biggest banks in Europe go, if BCS CS DB are going to keep improving here it is tough to see how the bear case prevails anytime soon, without some serious dislocations in the Euro currency itself. 

As for the market at-large, we have a fairly benign consolidation day on our hands which smacks of holiday trading and bears lacking punch. Of course, there are select shorts like CMG. But on the whole bears need to do much better than this.