There has been very little direction....>

EGB SUMMARY: There has been very little direction in the EGB market on Thursday,

ahead of the long weekend. Heading towards the close, the Schatz yield is +0.1bp

lower at -0.602% and the 10Y yield is -0.5bp at 0.498%. Volumes have been modest

- There was a small rise in longer dated EGB bond prices as the month-end

extension flow has begun to whirr into action in the late afternoon.

- There have been a number of data releases that have been largely ignored

including another strong German jobs report. German march HICP printed a tenth

below consensus at 1.5%Y/Y, but still representing a rise from February's

1.2%Y/Y. 

- Peripheral paper was fairly well bid all through the session and in the

afternoon there was a rare BTP future fly: IKM8 May 136.5/135.5/135 put fly

paper pays 7 on 4k. The Bund-PGB spread hit yet another 8 year low of 112.8bp. 

- US economic market went largely unnoticed by EGBs on Thursday, only the MNI

Chicago PMI release provided data that were away from consensus (below).