Update 4: Merkel to formally announce naked short-selling ban on Wednesday.

Update 3: Hearing naked ban will also apply to credit derivatives, i.e. naked CDS.

Update 2: Bloomberg chimes in quoting Deutsche Presse which reports that the ban will only apply to naked shorting. We are looking for official confirmation on what the final proposal will look like as there is a lot of confusion currently and no formal announcement. Regardless, investors are wondering what has changed today to institute this now.

Update: short selling ban will apply to stocks and euro government bonds according to German N-TV station. This is an act of desperation and will force all those who are long German assets to sell asap (selling is still legal).

Reuters headline for now, that the German Finance Minister will institute a short-selling ban at midnight. If true, this is huge, as it means the market will become massively dislocated once again. We can show charts of how Thailand, US and Greek markets reacted when this was introduced (short jump followed by significant slide lower), but you get the image. One wonders just how horrible the news flow over the next 24 hours will be for this drastic measure to be introduced.

Full and most recent Reuters update below: