It was a super slow / lazy day in the markets with bond traders debating whether the New York Jets or the New York Giants were a better football team (the rival American football teams face off this Saturday).

Treasury bonds gave up ground as stocks closed relatively flat.

The European Central Bank (ECB) extended almost €500 billion in 3 year LTRO (longer-term refinancing operations) to European financial institutions.

While the market initially cheered the headline, the realization set in that this does little to change Europe's sovereign debt woes.

The ECB's LTRO operation will help ease funding pressures for European banks but do little else.

Extending funds to European financial institutions at a rate of 1% so that they can then buy higher yielding European sovereign debt i.e. Spain and Italy in the 5-6% range still does not resolve the underlying sovereign issues.

Banks will still have to take a haircut (percentage write-down) on their assets and this burden will ultimately fall on European tax-payers.

The only viable long-term fix is for a full-fledged fiscal union to emerge on the European continent as well as structural reforms to improve labor market flexibility etc.

A European Charlemagne will take time to emerge.

In the meanwhile, investors will continue to view U.S. dollar assets as a relative safe haven.

In a significant development for the CDS (credit default swap) market, the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) passed a rule dictating public reporting of CDS transactions.

Similar rules already govern the market for cash corporate bonds (TRACE or the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine) so it makes sense that similar rules would be extended to the CDS market.

GDP, initial jobless claims, and University of Michigan consumer confidence numbers are out on Thursday.