This comment from Angela Merkel just now is causing ripples through markets...

Luke Baker at Reuters tweeted

Merkel: Europe wil not have shared liability for debt "as long as I live." #euco

That sounds really intense.



In two follow up tweets he clarified:

What Merkel actually said: Europe will have no shared TOTAL liability for debt as long as she lives... Still a pretty firm "no."

Worth bearing in mind who Merkel was speaking to, a meeting of her own party. Maybe she'll nuance it at the summit. #euco

So basically she was telling her own party that there will never be pure Eurobonds or one total Euro-wide Treasury. Maybe there will be partial sharing, and possibly there will be some walkdown of the comments.



The market instantly dived on the news (which came late in the European trading day). Then as the clarifications came in, markets recovered a little bit. Italy ended down just 1.11 percent after being down 1.4 percent in the immediate aftermath of the comments.