Highlights From Sarkozy, Merkel Press Conference

Here are some highlights from the much anticipated press conference between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel: -They are committed to shoring up the Euro currency. -They will present ambitious measures to the EU's Van Rompuy in a letter with proposals. -Sarkozy said there is 'Absolute Determination' to uphold the Euro currency. -They are going to propose a Eurozone economic council. -They would like to have a Eurozone president in 2.5 yrs. -They are also talking about a financial transaction tax as early as next month. -France and Germany will prepare budgets on shared economic analysis. -All Euro zone countries should have balanced budget rule. -Merkel sees a "new phase" in the Euro area. -Merkel: one "big bang" won't solve Euro debt crisis. More as we get it. Update: Two major negatives. Merkel said there will not be any Eurozone bonds anytime soon, and Sarkozy said the size of the Euro Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) is going to remain the same size. The market is taking these two major announcements as a huge negative, and stocks are falling sharply. The Dow had been off 11 points, but the Dow is now off 100 points, the NASDAQ is off 35 points, and the S&P 500 is lower by 13 points. Update 2: -Merkel said she is not pessimistic about the outlook of Europe. -Merkel said there will always be economic growth fluctuations. Update 3: -Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter was on CNBC discussing the meeting, and he called it an "absolute disaster." He said it will be bullish for gold, as the ECB could be forced to enact quantitative easing by the end of the year.