German fixed income futures trade either......>

BUNDS: German fixed income futures trade either side of unchanged at writing.

Schatz -2.0 ticks, Bobls -3.0 ticks, Bunds +6 ticks. This comes in the wake of a

strong rally on Wednesday, facilitated by broader risk-off flows, and resulting

in widening peripheral spreads.

- Wednesday saw little in the way of fresh insight from ECB`s Draghi and Praet,

with Praet reiterating that new TLTRO conditions depend on the lending outlook.

ECB`s Mersch suggested that the ECB is unlikely to start buying bank bonds,

equities and other assets "any time soon." Elsewhere, ECB's Villeroy noted that

the Bank still hopes for the economy to strengthen during the course of the

year, and has the necessary tools to react in the event of a deeper slowdown.

- Wednesday also saw RTRS run a report suggesting that the ECB is considering

tiering its deposit rate (after some light inferencing from Draghi), which added

further fuel to the bid in the short-end/belly.

- Participants now look to German state and national CPI readings, as well as EZ

consumer confidence and money supply data, while ECB's de Guindos, Nowotny, Knot

& Villeroy are all set to speak.