France will sell.............>

FRANCE AUCTION PREVIEW: France will sell E7.0-8.0bn of medium-term OATs and

E1.0-1.5bln in linkers on Thursday. On offer are the 0.0% Mar-23 OAT, 0.0%

Mar-24 OAT, 0.0% Mar-25 OAT, 0.10% Mar-28 OATi, 0.10% Mar-29 OATEi and the 0.10%

Jul-47 OATEi.

- BACKGROUND: Previous auction results (date, volume, average yield,

bid-to-cover): 0.0% Mar-23 OAT (20 Jun, E3.0bln, -0.60%, 3.20x); 0.0% Mar-24 OAT

(21 Mar, E3.0bln, -0.17%, 2.48x); 0.0% Mar-25 OAT (17 Oct, E4.1bln, -0.43%,

1.91x); 0.10% Mar-28 OATi (19 Sep, E0.43bln, -1.07$, 3.03x); 0.10% Mar-29 OATEi

(19 Sep, E0.79bln, -1.01%, 3.80x);  0.10% Jul-47 OATEi (20 Jun, E0.28bln,

-0.43%, 3.08x).

- RV/HISTORY: OATs have rallied since the beginning of November and the curve

has bull flattened. Spreads over bunds have held steady over the past month.

Business and manufacturing confidence data published by INSEE will come out

ahead of the auction, but is unlikely to be market moving. 

- TIMING: OAT results are due out at 1050GMT, with linkers out an hour later.