Spanish and Italian yields jump yet again

In a service to our readers, I have decided to spend only as much time writing about the European financial crisis as I can hold my breath. Readers will be relieved to know that while I have an exotic European-sounding name, I am NOT the guy in the Breitling magazine ads who holds the world record for free-diving (700 feet!). That’s Herbert Nitsch. Totally different guy. Anyhow… 3…2…1…go! <hep!>

• Spanish and Italian bond yields have soared -- again -- after an auction of Spanish bills resulted in yields that were more than double the previous auction. That should come as no surprise since Moody’s downgraded 28 Spanish banks yesterday and the government requested as much as 100 billion euros in bailout funds for the banks but failed to provide much in the way of details -- like how and when. A roadmap for this week’s European leaders’ summit was released late yesterday featuring proposals for common banking supervision and deposit insurance, and a phased-in move toward common debt issuance. Sensible! Doable! Dizzy! Unfortunately for everyone, the authors’ names were Van Rompuy, Barroso, Draghi and Juncker. No Merkel, no deal.<gasp!>

• That’s the backdrop, now what do you do about it? You can call Business Day AM Strategy AM today. Brian Battle, VP of trading at Performance Trust Capital, talks U.S. equity strategy at 9:10 a.m. ET; Philippe Capelle of Standard Life talks Canadian equity strategy at 9:35; Paul Christopher, chief international strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors and laconic master spy featured in the brilliant “novels” of Charles McCarry, joins us at 10:15 a.m. and Keith Wirtz, chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management sits down with us at 10:30 a.m. to tell us whether 2012 will echo 2010 and 2011. Sick of the macro headlines dictating the direction of your stocks? Randall Stanicky, managing director at Canaccord Genuity, has some pharma names that he says will do their own thing this year. He’s with us at 11 a.m. And that’s just Business Day AM. Barry Ritholtz, Jeff Saut and Randy Ollenberger are just a few more of the strategists and analysts who have ideas for your money through our programming day.

• The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. home price index will help set the tone for trading today at 9:00 a.m. ET. Yesterday’s surprise surge in U.S. new home sales in May has some analysts and economists looking for another signal that the housing market may have hit bottom. In a note to clients this morning, Deutsche Bank’s Joe LaVorgna states simply that the home-price index “is understating recent home price appreciation, as a broad array of other home price metrics is showing a more significant improvement in pricing behavior.” We’ll see at 9.

• An hour later, we could hear the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling on President Obama’s health care legislation. The court issues its rulings and notifications each day at 10 a.m. and delivered a rousing “psych!” to the dozens of reporters door-stepping the court yesterday. Today might be the day that determines the share price performance of dozens of massive companies in the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. But then again, that John Roberts isn’t known as the Chief Ham of the United States for nothing.

• Also at 10 a.m., we’ll see U.S. consumer confidence and the OECD survey of the U.S. economy.

• Gold miner Agnico-Eagle announced at 7 a.m. ET that CFO Ammar Al-Joundi was leaving the company. Barrick Gold announced at 7:10 a.m. ET that Ammar Al-Joundi had been named executive vice president and CFO. We’ll take a look at what the new guy brings to Barrick as big changes continue at the top of the world’s biggest gold company.

• EnCana has found itself in the middle of some potentially explosive allegations by Reuters that it may have colluded with Chesapeake Energy on suppressing land values in Michigan for their own benefit at auctions. EnCana said late yesterday that it has launched an investigation into the allegations.

• There’s an old saying in the U.S. that corn should be “knee high by the 4^th of July.” Chase producer Dale Jackson moseyed into my office this mornin’ and said “shucks, podner, corn out my way is awready chest high. Don’t that beat all?” Dale says he lives in the country. Corn is beating all, so are wheat and soybeans. We need to take a closer look at the soft commodities and weather.

Every morning Managing Editor Marty Cej writes a "chase note" to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Click here to have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins.