This morning, the S&P 500 Index e-mini futures (ES-U2) were trading higher by 2.25 points to 1337.75 per contract. The slight move higher on the futures came as investors hoped to hear about more quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve. This afternoon, the FOMC minutes will be released and almost every market-moving institution is waiting to hear how close the central bank is to implementing another quantitative easing program. Something that everyone should remember is that the Federal Reserve is still in the middle of its Operation Twist bond purchasing program already. Operation Twist was just recently extended until the end of 2012.
Earlier today, the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy announced a tax increase on its citizens and more spending cuts. Traders should continue to follow the yields on the 10 year Spanish bond. When yields are above 7.0% it seems to send the global stock markets into a tailspin. Today, the IBEX 35 (Spain) is trading higher by nearly 1.00%. That could change quickly as the Spanish market is extremely volatile. Some equities that will be in play today include the iShares MSCI Spain Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:EWP), Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:SAN), iShares MSCI France Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:EWQ), and the iShares MSCI Italy Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:EWI).