Reuters scoop on German short selling ban rocks world markets

Financial markets around the world were jolted on May 19 by a Reuters scoop that Germany was planning to introduce a midnight ban on risky bets on bonds, stocks and credit protection. The euro quickly fell to a new four-year low on the Reuters story from Berlin that the government was planning to ban short-selling of euro-denominated government bonds, credit default swaps based on those bonds and shares in Germany’s 10 leading financial institutions. U.S. Treasuries rose on the news while share prices in Asia fell.