EGBS have opened slightly higher,.......>

EGB SUMMARY: EGBS have opened slightly higher, taking cue from rally in US

Treasuries seen during last hour or so of NY trading. Treasuries pretty much

traded sideways during Asia, but curve is bear flattening now. German 10-yr Bund

is 2.7bp lower at 0.708%.

- Bonds have also been given a slight boost following larger than expected drop

in French flash PMIs for February. German numbers are up next and this will be

crucial to overall European sentiment.

- There is a non-monetary policy meeting by the governing council of the ECB

today and the talk is about whether or not Latvian Rimsevics is allowed to

attend following corruption charges.

- There is no EGB supply scheduled for today so attention will be on raft of UK

data and then after session closes on Fed minutes of Jan FOMC meeting and if

there will be more of a signal that there could be 4 rather than 3 rate hikes

this year.

- EMU periphery are trading higher but are lagging German Bunds slightly with

10-yr Bund/BTP and Bund/Bonos spreads are 1.5bp wider