Gilts are opening little changed.......>

GILT SUMMARY: Gilts are opening little changed from Thursday's 1645BST time

close, the short-end came under slight under pressure this morning, fading some

of its strong performance seen yesterday. 10-yr Gilt yield is currently 0.4bp

lower at 1.397%.

- Now that the ECB has announced its dovish taper, markets are turning their

attention to next weeks Bank of England monetary policy decision, with

expectations that it will rise interest rates for the first time in over

10-years. Focus at the moment appears to be the size of the majority in voting

for a rate hike and the likely dissenters in determining the likelihood of

further rates rises in 2018.

- Before then though, the selection of the next Fed Chair is beginning to reach

fever pith with announcement due any time (likely over the weekend), while main

data highlights will come this afternoon in the form of US first estimate of Q3

GDP and release of core PCE. However these are unlikely to change the markets

views that interest rates will rise again in December.

- Markets will also be keeping an eye on events in Spain/Catalonia.