The political situation in Portugal remains fragile to say the least, although the threat of imminent snap elections seems to have receded somewhat. The next key step will be the 8th Troika review, which was initially supposed to start on Monday but will likely be delayed to end-August, as requested by the Portuguese government. On balance, there is no urgent need to add to the current bailout envelope right now, and we think the Troika will avoid adding to the negative noise before the German elections. A resilient financial environment should have supported the German ZEW index in theory, although specific ... (full story)