A general strike took place in Barcelona, Catalonia, on Tuesday following the weekend’s independence referendum. He has been buying Spanish stocks this week on the grounds that they look cheap relative to other European equities and that there is underlying strength in the Spanish economy. The IBEX 35 is down 4% this week, compared with a 0.6% gain for the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600. The yield on Catalan bonds maturing in 2018 rose to just above 3% Wednesday, up from 2.455% Friday and a recent closing low of 1.065% in May. “That news [about the Catalan referendum] would’ve disrupted the entire European rates market in a normal environment where the ECB didn’t own so much of the debt,” he said.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 04, 2017 11:38 UTC