It has been a fairly risk-on...........>

BOND SUMMARY: It has been a fairly risk-on morning, with equities up a little

and core fixed income drifting weaker, but with an indecisive feel to it as we

head into U.S. data in a few hours. Short-end/belly underperforming globally.

- Little impact from morning European data (i.e. February eurozone industrial

production). More impactful will be at 0830ET/1330BST: U.S. initial jobless

claims, alongside March housing starts/building permits AND April Philly Fed.

- Italian spreads much tighter as some optimism seen that Rome will avail itself

of ESM funding, despite protestations to the contrary (and as per MNI Exclusive

on Wednesday).

- Some attention on Pres Trump as well: teleconference w G7 leaders, then speaks

w members of the House and Senate and, later, state governors on COVID-19.

- Decent auctions this morning for Spain, France and U.K. Latest levels:

* Jun 10-Yr Tsy futures (TY) down 1/32 at 139-4 (L: 138-30.5 / H: 139-07.5)

* Jun Bund futures (RX) down 37 ticks at 172.31 (L: 172.04 / H: 172.5)

* Jun Gilt futures (G) down 15 ticks at 136.84 (L: 136.69 / H: 136.93)

* Jun BTP futures (IK) up 151 ticks at 138.39 (L: 136.77 / H: 138.66)