Italy will come to market.....>

ITALY AUCTION PREVIEW: Italy will come to market on Thursday to raise

E5.5-7.0bln from the sale of 3-year, 7-year, 10-year and 20-year BTPs.

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

bid-to-cover): 0.60% Jun-23 BTP (New Issue); 3.10% Mar-40 BTP (14 Jan 2020,

E1.25bln, 2.14%, 1.49x); 0.85% Jan-27 BTP (13 Feb 2020, E2.75bln, 0.48%, 1.36x),

1.35% Apr-30 BTP (30 Jan 2020, E3.25bln, 0.94%, 1.24x).

- RV/HISTORY: Thursday's BTP auctions take place against a challenging backdrop

in which Italy is under official lockdown and major central banks are rushing to

deliver emergency policy stimulus. Economic data releases this week in Europe

are not much more than a sideshow. BTPs have whipsawed wildly over the past week

with the 10-year benchmark yield surging to 1.424% from a March low of 0.989%

and has since returned to 1.225%. The curve has flattened with the 2s30s spread

narrowing to 184bp from 212bp at the beginning of the month, while spreads over

bunds have widened. Spreads over the comparable EUR swap (bp): 3.10% Mar-40 BTP

(220); 0.85% Jan-27 BTP (127), 1.35% Apr-30 BTP (148).

- TIMING: Results are due out at 1000GMT