The dominant macro signal from Wednesday's session is a meaningful bull-steepening of the US Treasury curve: the 2-year yield fell 8 basis points to 4.18% while the 10-year dropped only 4 basis points to 4.58%, compressing the inversion and suggesting markets are repricing near-term rate expectations more aggressively than long-end inflation risk. The VIX fell 5.03% to 15.67, consistent with a broadly risk-on session, while the DXY softened 0.44% to 100.5 and the dollar weakened against the euro, sterling, and franc simultaneously — a signal of broad-based dollar selling rather than a single bilateral move. Bitcoin surged 4.37% to $64,956 and Ethereum gained 6.54% to $1,889, amplifying the risk-appetite read. Gold slipped 0.42% to $4,044/oz despite dollar weakness, an unusual divergence worth monitoring.

For European investors, the dollar softness translated directly into EUR/USD gaining 0.36% to 1.1425 and GBP/USD rising 0.37% to 1.3397, with EUR/GBP essentially flat at 0.8527 — meaning both currencies moved in near-lockstep against the dollar rather than against each other. USD/CHF fell 0.69% to 0.8091, reflecting franc strength that weighed on EUR/CHF (-0.31% to 0.9243), a headwind for Swiss exporters. European equity performance was divergent: the DAX fell 0.59% to 24,999.53, the MIB dropped 0.86%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 shed 0.23%, while the AEX gained 0.74% and the SMI added 0.46%. Cross-asset pressure is most concentrated in European banks (sector down 2.29%), utilities (down 2.33%), travel and leisure (down 2.45%), and personal and household goods (down 2.68%), while the AEX's outperformance likely reflects sector composition skewed toward healthcare and technology, both of which were among the top European sector performers.