Monti proposes European bailout fund buy bonds

The bailout agreement reached this summer to stop Europe's downward spiral did not even buy time for its sacrosanct August holidays. Within two weeks of the pact, a reluctant European Central Bank was forced to step into the breach and buy Italian and Spanish bonds to counter the market's assault. Leaders had agreed that Europe's bailout fund could buy sovereign bonds in such a situation, but the deal has not yet been ratified by national legislatures, and in any case the bailout fund doesn't have sufficient resources for the job.

Marc Chandler submits:There has been an obvious build-up of expectations about the U.S. jobs report today. The dramatic jump in the ADP estimate sparked a large upward revision in expectations, even though the shortcomings of its estimate and its track record are well known. In part, the optimism also reflects the recent string of data that has convinced even many of the cynics that the U.S. economy has accelerated.