There was a delay to the opening of.....>

EGB SUMMARY: There was a delay to the opening of the Eurex markets this morning

as  technical difficulties were experienced. Once the Bund market did finally

open after a long delay, the Mar-18 Bund contract opened at 163.37. The contract

gave back some its opening gains and is currently trading +3 ticks.

- The 5Y part of the German curve underperformed in early trading with yields on

the longer end of the German curve curve marginally lower the 30Y yield

declining the most by 0.8bp.

- On the political front, Social Democrats in Germany start exploratory talks

with the CDU/CSU today. 

- In Italy, newspaper Il Messaggero claimed that Italian election date has been

set for March 4th, 2018. The newspaper expects the Chamber of Deputies and

Senate to be dissolved around Dec 28/29th. The Bund-BTP spread is 1.2bp wider at

140.6bp in early trading.

- In terms of issuance the Republic of Iceland announced that it will sell a new

EUR Dec 20, 2022 today that may price today and is marketing in the MS+55 area

with Barclays, Citi, DB and Nomura as leads.