Seemingly confirming the rumor,Agence France Press reports that Deutsche Bank is nearing a $5.4 billion settlement with the US Justice Department. This has catalyzed another leg higher in Deutsche Bank stock and lifted the whole market as it would appear that unconfirmed sources have 'fixed' the world's most systemically dangerous bank (despite the fact that short-dated counterparty risk is soaring).
Here is the tweet...
#BREAKING Deutsche Bank near $5.4 bn US settlement over mortgage bonds: source
— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 30, 2016
And the response in the stock...
Which is lifting all stocks...
And now AFP is walking back their comment...
- DEUTSCHE BANK SETTLEMENT MAY BE ANNOUNCED COMING DAYS - AFP
We look forward to the 1605ET denial from The DOJ. Once again we remind readers that Monday is a bank holiday in Germany.
For now, the professionals know exactly what is afoot - anything to slow the outflows of cash... and counterparty risk hedges are soaring...
And as a reminder, this is about NIRP tax on capital...
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Naturally, Deutsche Bank has refused to comment on speculation around the level of the DoJ fine.
- DEUTSCHE BANK DECLINES TO COMMENT ON MEDIA REPORT IT IS CLOSE TO SETTLEMENT WITH DOJ
Which means that should the DOJ make no announcement on Sunday, any buying spree today in DB may promptly turn into another selloff. Making matters worse, with German trading closed for holiday on Monday, only the far more illiquid US tracking stock will be open, which may accentuate any potential selling.
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As a reminder, there were "fixes" galore in 2008 and rumors sent Lehman stock soaring over 10% in at least 6 weeks during the last few months...
