Global Macro Monitor

Key Data Points
German 10-year Bund 4 bps lower;
France 1 bp tighter to the Bund;
Belgium no spread change;
Ireland 6 bps tighter;
Italy 12 bps tighter;
Spain 30 bps tighter;
Portugal 15 bps tighter;
Greece 4 bps tighter;

Large Eurozone banks weekly change, -10.60. to 10.42 percent;
Euro$ down 0.41 percent.

Comments

· The German Bund is approaching its 1.127 percent low made last July;

· Italy, Spain, and Ireland yields at lowest post-crisis weekly close;

· The Bundesbank criticised the ECB’s bond-buying programme designed to save the euro, questioning whether it is really necessary and suggesting it represents a great risk to taxpayers. – FT

· Italy sold €8bn of six month treasury bills at a yield of 0.503%, down from 0.831% previously andthe lowest rate since the introduction of the euro. – Nick Fletcher, Guardian

· Pimco, the world’s biggest bond fund has been cutting its holdings of Italian and Spanish government debt after their recent rallies. – Grame Wearden, Guardian

· Enrico Letta has been handed the mandate to form Italy’s next government by president Giorgio Napolitano. – Grame Wearden, Guardian

· Enrico Letta told reporters in Rome on Wednesday that his top priority was to tackle the “enormous, unbearable” economic emergency in Italy, in a signal that his government could change the pace of austerity. – Grame Wearden, Guardian

· French unemployment rising by 1.2% to 3.225m, the 23rd monthly rise in a row worst level since records began in January 1996. – Grame Wearden, Guardian

· Spain‘s joblessness has reached fresh heights over the first three months of the year with a record 27% of the workforce unemployed. – Giles Tremlett, Guardian

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