Thereâs a Swine Flu joke in here somewhereâ¦
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/04/27/213516/a-certain-sovereign-virus/
But if you want to take the temperature of the eurozone, so to speak, and see whether Greek crisis contagion is really catching on, look no further than Thursdayâs Italian bond auction.
Italy is, of course, one of the forbiddenly-porcine acronym countries; comprising Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Burdened with some budgetary problems that bear a resemblence to those of Greece, this Club Med member already had something of a hiccup on a Tuesday morning bond auction.
On that day the country sold â¬9.5bn of six-month bills. But crucially, received only â¬9.78bn in bids for the bonds â indicating a bid-to-cover ratio of just 1.02. Below 1 is considered a failed auction.
Whatâs more, the average yield was 0.814 per cent, far more than analysts had expected and above the 0.567 per cent yield on offer at an auction of the same type of bonds last month.
Thursdayâs sale of 2-year, 5-year and 10-year bonds is for a smaller amount of debt â between â¬5.5bn and â¬8bn according to Bloomberg â but it is the first Club Med bond auction since Standard & Poorâs cut Portugalâs sovereign credit ratings on Tuesday afternoon, and Spainâs on Wednesday.
The auction starts at 10am BST.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/?segid=70409
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/04/27/213516/a-certain-sovereign-virus/
But if you want to take the temperature of the eurozone, so to speak, and see whether Greek crisis contagion is really catching on, look no further than Thursdayâs Italian bond auction.
Italy is, of course, one of the forbiddenly-porcine acronym countries; comprising Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Burdened with some budgetary problems that bear a resemblence to those of Greece, this Club Med member already had something of a hiccup on a Tuesday morning bond auction.
On that day the country sold â¬9.5bn of six-month bills. But crucially, received only â¬9.78bn in bids for the bonds â indicating a bid-to-cover ratio of just 1.02. Below 1 is considered a failed auction.
Whatâs more, the average yield was 0.814 per cent, far more than analysts had expected and above the 0.567 per cent yield on offer at an auction of the same type of bonds last month.
Thursdayâs sale of 2-year, 5-year and 10-year bonds is for a smaller amount of debt â between â¬5.5bn and â¬8bn according to Bloomberg â but it is the first Club Med bond auction since Standard & Poorâs cut Portugalâs sovereign credit ratings on Tuesday afternoon, and Spainâs on Wednesday.
The auction starts at 10am BST.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/?segid=70409
